Strong Tea, Coffee and Retouching

Credit: Art Explosion

This morning I brewed a cup of de-caffinated green tea. As usual, pour boiling water into a mug with the bag. As usual, I wait about 15 minutes while it steeps, remove the bag and place it in a bowl allocated for our worm composting bin. No big deal.

However, today, after putting the bag in the bowl, I saw a tea bag floating in my mug. What? I surely removed the thing. I opened the refrigerator to check the compost bowl. Confirmed: The tea bag was there. I took other teabag out of my mug and put it next to the second teabag in the bowl. I laughed at myself, realizing I just brewed a very strong—and bitter—cup of tea. I'm glad it was was de-caffinated!

When we are working on our photos—repairing damage or making them look more beautiful—we must be careful not to make too strong a brew. It's got to be just right: Not too little and not too much. The photo must look clean—but not indistinguishable from the original. With the exception of photo illustrations, one should always be on guard to this reality.

Good photo retouching leads to strong photos. Strong photo retouching can be bitter on the eye.