Behind the Curtains

Somethings to note: I usually do not do major edits. Nor do I use Photoshop very often. I'm not very good at Photoshop.

But every now and then, I fall in love with a particular photo and I'll spend the time and effort to get it just right. And the following photo (nearly straight-out-of-camera) is one such photo:

The sun was on the top right and was very bright in the sky. This wasn't a planned photo really. We were talking about something and I loved how the back-lighting looked so I snapped a photo. And love it!

I absolutely hate the totally blown out / over-exposed hot-spot, however.

So I cloned, I stamped, and I hoped for the best:

It looks mostly pretty natural, and I was happy with it. Until I asked someone's opinion and they though his orange/yellow ear made it look like his left ear was on fire.

Alright, we can fix that:

Do you find yourself fixating on the differences between the photos? I don't know if it's the psychology of suggestion or not, but I simply cannot take my eyes off the spot that I fixed because they look/feel fake to me. (Kind of like how if someone told you that someone else had a nose job, you might find it hard to maintain eye-contact....) But logically, I feel like most people would not notice the Photoshopping in the final result and it doesn't overly alter the original adorableness of the image.

Or maybe I'm deluding myself.

Regardless, there it is: a little glimpse behind the curtains at the wizard at work.