nicaragua San Juan Sunset modified

The next image in the folder is a relatively unmodified version of

this image (just some whole image adjustments to the color and

perspective), but the lamp post in the foreground was bothering me.

Due to the wide angle lens that I used and my proximity to it, it was

really distorted. The top of the lamp post was tiny in relation to the

base. So I decided to do some creative manipulation and selectively

apply some perspective correction to just the lamp post, and in the

process I also "fixed" the lamp missing it's cap. Obviously this isn't

true to reality anymore, but what do you think? Is it an improvement?

Every image is manipulated or called, edited. It is the final image what is count. Very nice composition well balanced in both side, and a beautiful sunset or sunrise picture.

Cheers.

I don't know how you enlarged the lamps, Siegfried?! But bit is sure an improvement!

Best regards, Siegfried!

PDE

Yes I know that some sort of processing takes place no matter what. But in my eyes an image that has been manipulated to show something that didn't actually exist is something different than one that hasn't been. Not to say that one is better than the other, just something that the viewer should be made aware of, if it's significant and isn't obvious.

Now the manipulation I did on this image is minor,not really worth mentioning. But my curiosity was more about whether it had aesthetic merit in the eyes of others. Or am I'm being overly picky about a minor image detail?

btw, it's a sunset. San Juan del Sur is on the Pacific Coast of Nicaragua.

Thanks for the feedback. To enlarge it, I created a duplicate layer and masked off the lamp post turning everything else transparent in the top layer. Then I stretched the lamp post in the top layer to fit my idea of what it should be. That left the original lamp post in the bottom layer to get rid of where it was showing behind the fixed one. That was done with some "simple" cloning. I also used the cloning tool to put the cap on the center lamp as well. At the end I merged the 2 layers and ran a blurring tool over the edge of the lamp post to eliminate the hard line that was created by manipulating it separate from the rest of the image.

I think I know where you're coming from, and while I think the original is a beautiful photograph, I also think the edited version has just a touch more aesthetic appeal.  It's a relatively minor change.  I wouldn't spend much time worrying about the "genuineness" of the edited version (partly because you might have achieved the same effect just by moving closer).