Last edited Mon Jul 18, 2022, 12:33 AM - Edit history (1)
The enlarged eyes and upturned mouth looked too unnatural to me and were therefore a turnoff. I have absolutely no problem with cropping or making the image larger or smaller, lighter or darker. Changing the size and shape of key features in relation to each other and/or to the image as a whole is where things become problematic, IMHO.
The original photo was very cute. Cropping it to make the kitten the focal point was definitely the way to go. The leaves? No problem, didn't even notice them. At that point, it's still a very naturalistic portrait of a cute kitten.
The problem, for me, came in when the eyes were made noticeably larger than an actual cat's eyes, and the mouth was edited into a shape that, to me, doesn't look like a shape that a cat's mouth would take naturally. The result no longer looks like an actual normal kitten to me at that point. It becomes an uncanny valley kitten (https://spectrum.ieee.org/what-is-the-uncanny-valley), realistic and natural but somehow...not?
I'm trying to be as tactful as possible, but I also don't want to beat around the bush so much that my point gets lost. So I'll just say it: that kitten creeps me out. 
Obviously, not everyone reacted that way (look how many votes it got!), so you may feel free to tell me to go [fill in the blank]. 
Did AndyS do anything wrong? Not really. After all, the decisions he made were perfectly valid from a purely artistic standpoint. And he certainly did not break any rules about manipulating images, because we don't have any. In the end, my opinion is just that: MY opinion, which everyone is free to ignore.
Having said all that, however, I am wondering if maybe it is time to make some rules for our photo contests about image manipulation. Just we we can all be on the same page and prevent misunderstandings in the future, because this sort of thing is bound to come up again.
What do you all think?
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