Last week we introduced “Spot the Shop”, giving readers a chance to flex their eye muscles and seek out the Photoshopped adjustments of an image (If you want to recap that before going further here is the link).

Below is the original and adjusted, along with the adjustments highlighted in the center.

What was guessed:

The most notable thing about the image was the most frequently guessed as digitally created. The snow in the model’s hand, out of focus in the foreground, and background is all 100% genuine. Powder snow was picked up and loosely placed on the hand, and blown directly into the 50mm f/1.8 lens. The wide aperture allowed for great blur, however the clarity of the gloves and pile suffered from some snow being too close to the lens.

Many guessed that “something was removed” in the bottom left, and bottom right corners. There was no removal in the background area of this image.

Focal Plane Adjustment / Blur created.
The background and snow blur was all done from a shallow depth of field in the lens. No blur was added.

And finally, in a wonderful deconstruction from Tom Argiro (this is the one thing I thought nobody would catch):
Tom stated
“The catch lights in her right eye (camera left) look to be powered consistent with that [The lighting on the face], but the catch light in her left eye (camera right) is reversed from what I see hitting her face. My initial thought was that the catch lights are florescent tubes, perhaps coming from underneath a covered parking structure at an apartment complex in the phoenix heat. But two of the lights are just above camera, not from too high above, and a third light appears to be below and camera right. I have to think then that the left eye (camera right) is a mirror image of the correct eye and photoshopped in”.
The model’s left eye is in fact a duplicate of the right, flipped horizontally, with the stray hair blended back over the eye. This was done because the model’s hair pushed down on her eyelash, causing one eye to be more closed than the other. The reason for the lighting catch lights and background luminance difference is because this was taken beneath an overpass, closer to one side than the other. Hence you have billowing and reflected daylight coming from camera right and much more shade from camera left (which also is the reason for the slight hue difference in the background. Great job Tom!

What was not guessed:
The lips:
Just like the eye, one side of the lips was created by flipping the other. This was done because in the original her lips were more stuck on the right side than the left, and I wanted to ensure the blowing motion looked powerful enough for the blast of snow coming from her hands. Chris Toomer did mention that there was an alignment issue between the lips, and it may have been the added gap that caused it to stand out to him.

The nose:
I thought this was the biggest giveaway out there. The camera left side of the nose was (again) copied and transformed from the right. This was to use as a source for removing the flake. I thought this would stand out due to the exposure difference on the tip of her nose. The lighting is consistent that it is brighter on the model’s left side than her right, yet the tip of the right side of her nose blends perfectly with the opposite side of her face.

Comment and tell us how you did, or if you want to further the argument that the snow was added and I didn’t show you the real original. MWAHAHAHAHA.

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Robert Hall is a freelance photographer in Southeast Michigan. His work primarily consists of weddings, commercial and editorial. He is constantly improving his skills through trading of techniques and critique with fellow photographers. Robert is always looking for new connections on social networks!
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