Essential changes

Here is an older example I was working on last year and which, for some reason, popped up on my desktop this morning.
I love the "cut the (visual) crap" principle in photography and PS is a blessing for the creative photographer. The "pure" picture is very hard to make in one go. There are often elements that bother the viewer.

Take this example: What I loved on the spot (and the spot is the island Sifnos - Greece) was the weird perspective of the church combined with the subtle game of shadows. But I especially loved the combination of the huge building and the more traditional blue-topped church in the far background... That to me was the essence of the picture when I took it; that attracted me... I had taken the picture some years before, but for some reason or other it hadn't satisfied me...
But even now, I was bothered by some aspects:

• The tree has no function
• The wire disturbs the picture
• On the bottom-left you can see part of a wall. No way to get the combination of the two buildings without the wall...
• The door is an unnecessary eye catcher
• Is colour necessary in this picture? Does it add value?
  

So I changed a number of things:

• I "cloned away" the door and the wire
• I selected the floor and wall, and warped the whole until the wall had gone. The warping stretches the floor and makes the entire picture a bit more dynamic.
• I greyed-out the sky, changed the whole picture into grey tones, except for the blue dome which underlines the "Greek" spirit of place in this picture...