Improvement or Interpretation.

Exercise: Improvement or Interpretation.

I took this is the portrait of a Sri Lankan farmer last year.  The whites of eyes are darkened so that there is little eye definition.  By lightening the whites I have lifted the pupils  and given them the missing detail.

This small change has altered his character completely.  Instead of the soft face of a gentle farmer we now have the staring face of fighter.  This sort of alteration is, to me, not justified.  It may be a believable image but it is far from true.  

To draw an arbitrary line between forgery and flattery is difficult.  The removing of a facial blemish from a bride I would accept, but to airbrush out every wrinkle from the face of a cosmetic model is out and out fraud.  Between these extremes we all draw our own line.

 I achieved the whitening in Photoshop by masking the eyes and using a paintbrush to lighten that part so as not to give any unnaturally harsh transition line.