Selective Truth
I've been practicing photography seriously for about as long as it takes to get a fine art degree. Looking back, I can see real growth in how I approach editing. These two versions of the same photo illustrate the shift:
In the original edit (above), I leaned heavily on AI touchups, crushing the shadows, increasing contrast, and punching up the saturation.
In my recent revision, I've taken a lighter touch, while also adjusting two important aspects of the image that I didn't pay attention to before: I shifted white balance to match actual daylight, instead of the camera default, and I corrected chromatic aberration — that green tint visible at the billboard's right edge — with a lens profile.
The result looks more restrained, perhaps even boring, but it's more believable.
For me, photography isn't fiction. It's a selective truth that leads the viewer to see what I see in the real world: not a world set aglow by AI and Adobe Lightroom sliders.