Uh....Ron, where's the other end of the rope in the third pic? Anyone else think something looks strange in the photo?

The belayer's end of the rope has been removed using a tool like the 'Stamp' tool in Photoshop. If you zoom into the pic, its pretty clear that that was what was done. I can draw the rope back in and post it here if people want. But that would be just a reproduction of where the rope went, not the actual original pic with the rope.

Shows how we should not trust what we see in photos in the digital era.

cheers,bobl

PS - Alternately, I could remove the rope entirely and fix the places where the rope was previously removed as well so no one would be able to tell. Ha!

As Bob mentions, the rope to the belayer was removed with a photo editing program (Picture Window); I felt it was a distracting element and I wanted the focus to be on the climber and not the rope.

I have posted the original unretouched photo for comparison.

I digitially process all the photos I submit to cb.com. The usual steps are:

1. Crop photo to improve composition. 2. Modify brightness levels to correct for underexposed images, bring out shadow detail, etc.3. Increase contrast to punch up drab photos.4. Increase sharpness.5. Add text, route lines, bolt positions, etc. for route photos.6. Occasionally use Picture Window cloning tool to eliminate distracting elements (belayer's end of rope, other climbers, etc.)

I will make a note on future photos if I eliminate part of the rope so it's clear the photo was modified.

I'm not sure you need to go to the trouble of telling everyone that you modified a picture...I was just curious. Thanks for letting me know.