Can you find 10 things wrong with this image?

[ggroess]

Recently, I opened the back of a magazine at my doctors office and found a puzzle.
There were two seemingly identical images on the page with the following challenge: Can you find the 10 differences in these two images?

Well....Can you? Here is the twist...Time yourself. Find out how long it takes you to carefully look over these images and separate the differences. Along with your discoveries, there are 10 in the image; please list out the time it took you to find them. Post your answers back to the group.

Please use only your eyes and photoshop zoom tools. Using PS to do "difference" on the image would be cheating....
You probably should just download them so you can see the entire image.

Yes, there is a point to this exercise...

Greg

[mikemeister_admin]

1.no parking becomes no barking.
2.no bottle in street
3.man behind tiedye becomes Einstein.
4.signboard changes color
5.officer looses buckles on boots
6.hoodie turns green
7.pole looses band
8.seal becomes smileyface
9."o" on shirt turns red
10.change of shoe color on above
11change of ISO on nikon camera from 100 to 400(just kidding)
GregM(time 5 mins)

[ggroess]

Well done...
Lets see how deep everyone else looks...
Greg

[ggroess]

So what are we trying to do? Most people look at an image for a few seconds and make decisions about the content, quality, and feel of the image. Often do not see the fine details until much later. If they are passionate about images they will take a good hard look and see what is inside the boarders of the image. I fall into the passionate category, and as you get more serious about image correction you should try to land there as well. When I look at an image I try to relax, for me this is the most import part of the correction I am going to do, I'm looking for tell tale signs that there is something wrong. If I concentrate too hard then I end up trying to take in too much information. Some information I might not need; and if I'm not careful I'll miss other things I should see. I make sure to take the time to ask myself key questions. 

• What is the most important item in the frame?
• Do I need to protect it?
• Do my eyes leave the frame?
• Why?
• Do I keep seeing the same point in the image?
• Why?
1. Is it the eyes in a portrait?
2. A bright spot in a low key image or the shadow in a high key image?
3. What is it that I keep coming back to?
4. Does it make sense that I am looking there?
• Should I crop the image?
• Rule of thirds
• Golden Curve
• Golden Mean
• Is there a "natural" neutral source?
• Is there a color cast I can see
• Are the Significant highlights details intact?
• Are the Significant shadows details intact?
• Is there enough mid-tone contrast?
• Is the color flat?
• Is there detail in that color?
• Is the color over or under saturated?
• Is there enough variation in the existing color
• Finally, am I missing anything really obvious?
*Significant = Items worth spending more than a few minutes on or that are vital to the image.

This PROCESS is what I call "seeing" I know it sounds silly but many people "look", very few know how to "see". It involves analysis and thought not just reflex looking.
I was taught the process over 25 years ago.  I never forgot it.  Every image I create or correct gets this overview. If I am going to be making corrections I'm looking for items that I think I could do better, I question everything. This is a skill I must practice to keep in touch with. I often use the internet for practice, just going to a image hosting site and looking will help you get better at this look at as many images as you can, ask the questions above, pretty soon you'll start seeing things you would change. You will start to see...

Greg

[kessi]

1.  Seal changes to Smiley
2.  Sun on t-shirt changes to red
3.  Red hoodie becomes green
4.  Bottle on left removed
5.  Bald man changes to Einstein
6.  Buckles removed on cop's boots
7.  Right hand telephone pole looses a stud
8.  Brown boots of guy on right become dull
9.  Blue sign becomes green
10. I missed the Parking to Barking completely and it took me 15 minutes plus.
That does not say much for my observation skills.
But nice exercise and interesting discussion. Thanks, Greg.

regards,
kessi

[ggroess]

Kessi,
It really comes down to what you think you need to be looking for.  Many people think that they have to make changes to areas that are not really that bad off; or they want to make changes that look good on the screen but when you go to print they are really bad.  The screen can only show you the 72 DPI of the display.  Prints on the other hand can support from 220 to 300+ DPI there is a ton of room in that "area" for information your monitor cannot ever display. 

It really can help you to have a decision tree or some sort of process you follow every time.  For me the decisions start with the End...What is the final output...prints go down a different work flow path; images for the net or for a DVD slide show a totally different path.

Greg