Ever taken a travel photo that would have been perfect but for everyone else in it? All those tourists, like ants on a discarded pastry, ruining the vibe of the thing?

It turns out there’s a simple hack that will get rid of them once and for all. Imagine! A picture of the Eiffel Tower, the Taj Mahal or the Opera House that’s completely devoid of, well, other people taking photos like you!

With a little help from Photoshop, it’s easier than you think.

1. Set your camera up on a tripod – or any other stable surface, such as your long-suffering boyfriend’s back – in order to stabilise it. Take between 15 and 20 shots of your subject, making sure that your camera doesn’t move and that the exposure remains the same for all the shots.
2. Download this series of images onto your computer and open Photoshop. Hit File » Scripts »Statistics.
3. In the Image Statistics box that opens up, set Stack Mode to Median. (We don’t know what that means, either. Do it anyway. Trust us.) Then click Browse, select the photos of your subject, and hit Open.
4. Photoshop will now layer the images on top of one another, removing anything that isn’t exactly the same in all of them. In other words, while the Opera House isn’t going anywhere, all those people walking around it will suddenly, somehow magically, disappear. It will look like you had the place all to yourself!
5. You can experiment with this technique, too, standing in front of the camera (if someone else is taking the photos that is) and not moving while the photos are taken. The result is that, like the landscape or building in the picture, you’ll remain in the final image while the people around you fade away.

This feature is currently only available in the Extended version of Photoshop, which is more expensive than the regular version, causing some people to cross their arms unhappily. But when the alternative is to stand around waiting for everyone else to go home – or else start yelling at them to get out of the damned way – you might consider it a worthy investment.

For once, our so-called lonely planet might actually feel a little lonelier!