DPP: Exercise 21: Enhancement

Here's a guy who's beard caught my attention. I had my camera in hand, asked for a photo, clicked twice on whatever settings were selected from a previous image, and he was away.  The original image direct from the camera is below, as well as large copies of the two above.  The one on the left represent global adjustments, while the one on the right the specific adjustments requested in this exercise:  brightening the face and eyes, as well as adding a bit more color (through saturation) of the eyes.

Because this gentleman has dark eyes, simply increasing saturation resulted in nothing noticeable.  For that I had to lighten to quite an extent that it may seem a bit unnatural.  There are, of course, people with eyes that look like this, but I don't remember his eyes so much as his beard.  I prefer the image on the left, without the local adjustments to the face and eyes.

Regarding the ethics of this type of adjustment, perhaps the most important question is intention:  what do you want the image to express? to whom?  I'm not trying to sell anything.  I don't want you to run out and buy any products.  I use the camera to explore the world and to this end I want to remain close to my vision of the moment of capture.  There are occasions, like this, where there is no time to fiddle with the settings to achieve a better capture. I then use the computer to bring the image into line with memory.  And may sometimes become so enraptured with an image that I want to bring out little bits of it to create a greater or deeper sense of appreciation.

I don't know that there is an easy answer to this question.  I think we have to work with it on a case-by-case basis.

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