Exercise 21. Enhancement

For this exercise I used a picture of my oldest son in the conditions that were suggested in the text.  I used natural light and concentrated on photographing the face and eyes.

This is the original shot:

I then used the selection tool to select the face area before brightening and changing the contrast:

This certainly brings more attention to the face than the original shot.  I do not consider that I have tampered too far with reality with this shot as I have simply changed the lighting conditions that the shot was taken in, on another day with different lighting conditions  the original may well have been this version.

In this photo I have altered the eyes by changing saturation and brightness of the eye.  This version is, in my opinion, definitely not as legitimate as the other two.  In this version I have physically altered the appearance of my son beyond that that can be reasonably expected due to natural conditions.  However I believe that this kind of photograph, with alterations, may be acceptable within the correct context.  For example if the picture was supposed to be surreal or have some kind of fantasy element to it changing the properties of the person in the shot could be perfectly acceptable as the whole purpose of the photograph is to deceive.