Exercise 19 - correction

For this exercise I elected to use the photographs from the OCA website.

Photograph 1 - glass objects



Before

After

I think it would be more accurate to say that I 'sanitised' this image - the slightest speck of dust; the smallest blemish; even some of the imperfections in the glass, everything was removed. There is no doubt that the corrections I made were over-the-top, I would also suggest that the image is far less interesting because of the alteration.

It is very easy to alter somebody else's work - they are not my nick-knacks, it is not my composition and I have no personal investment or connection to the work. This in itself enables a more radical approach to correction. In addition, I don't actually know what is a bit of fluff and what is a genuine flaw in the glass. It is possible to speculate that, with the exception of a couple of very dark specks, all of the 'marks' on the glassware are manufacturing defects or age related and this collection of pieces was assembled for this photograph because they were interesting.

Does it bother me, removing dust specks from my image? Yes, but more so because I have dust on my sensor rather than any qualms relating to image tampering. In this particular instance, if it were not for this exercise in correction, I don't think I would have removed any of the 'specks' from the image - possibly the very tiny one on the white background just above the amber glass.

Photograph 2 - lens flare

Before

After

In this particular photograph the lens flare looks odd - two little hexagonals on the edge of frame. The position of the flare makes it easy to remove, as long as you don't over work the correction it is unlikely to be noticed. The more I work with Photoshop the more I realise "less is more".

How justifiable was this exercise? If this was my image, I would have tried to take the shot without flare; failing that, I would have tried to direct the flare across the shot and make it part of the image. 'Justifiable' is an interesting word and has quite strong moral overtones - is it permissible, fit and proper? I would say yes it is OK to do it because it dos not change the meaning or the content of the image. However, I'm not sure its justifiable.

This exercise was interesting because I have never used the colour blending mode to assist in removing flare.