In a message dated 3/11/2005 5:43:39 AM Pacific Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: Q: I find the metal top of the fireplace distracting. I can't see to fix ti with just cropping. Any other suggestions?
http://home.wlu.edu/~desjardins/ ======== Nice protrait. Well, I haven't tried it yet, but believe me I will be doing it sometime. You might go into PS and create a shallower depth of field for the back. Or for just the grill part (blur it a bit more, in other words, to match the blur of the fire). I am going to go with George Lepp on this, don't call it manipulating an image (since manipulate has negative connotations -- devious, etc.), call it "optimizing" an image. Hehehehe. I like what he said a lot -- so I am going to promote the word optimize. He said when "adding" things then the addition should be made obvious, but everything else (removing distracting parts that are not crucial to the picture -- he showed one photo of two birds where he had removed a bird just flying into the frame behind them -- using adjustment layers to bring out dark/light areas, etc.) is wide open for optimization. I agree. Caveat, which he made too -- as long as it's not editorial/newspaper photography. But most of us aren't doing that. Marnie

