It's funny to see justification of the fact that people just don't quite get it. Lots of money = the ability to get the best of the best. The best photographers, the best lighting, the best makeup. Of course the best Photoshoppers come with that, as well. But still it baffles me how so few people actually understand how all of this works: skillful raw materials can get you 90% there. Has nobody ever seen live theatre? Well-produced live theatre looks like a moving painting because of the well-done lighting, costuming, makeup, and direction -- and there's no Photoshop going on there, now is there?

So while, certainly, Ayu and the Hong Kong skyline don't, in person, look quite as dreamy they do in these images (this is show business, after all), it's not just because some digigeek is smudging away in Photoshop. It's because they are using the same tricks that photographers, filmmakers, and theatre directors have been using for a century.

That all being said, Photoshopped or otherwise, I don't care, so long as the photo has a concept. And these photos have a fantastic and beautifully-executed concept. They beat lots of the other miscellaneous junk that Ayu has put out recently.