The Act of Disappearing......

Photo retouching, and image blending takes great skill in the darkroom.   Prior to computers, photographic retouching could only be performed by a photographic lab with well equipped darkrooms, and talented technicians.  Darkroom retouching included the acts of dodging and burning which were done by hand, and creating visual effects using multiple blends.  Multiple negative blends was a lengthy tedious job, usually requiring the need for more than one photo enlarger. Now photographic blending can be done with the use of computer generated layers to create composite images. 

Eliminating a subject from an image is one the most difficult darkroom feats, but with the power of photographic editing tools the task can be performed on the electronic image.

The photograph on the right was taken in Hawaii, at Anini Beach.  This photograph can be found at: http://www.aninihale.com Sometimes a photograph captures something special, other than the original intent.  If the picture on the right was to be used in a brochure, changes could be made.
The new picture on the right is the same photograph.  The emphasis is now the "ocean view" from the Anini Hale Beach house (Anini Hale means Anini Home). If you look close enough, there is still evidence (intentional) of our original subject.  It seems we left her foot under the chair.