if i were a food beautician

If I were a food beautician, I would have taken a few seconds to tidy up the Hong Kong style stir fried beef noodles 港色牛肉炒麵 that I made. The photograph that I took was a candid one straight off the outdoor kitchen that I prepared this dish. More specifically I scooped the stir fried beef and sauce straight off a 16" wok onto the waiting fried noodles in one smooth motion. The result is not bad for a home chef.
The dish tasted incredible, and I marveled at the photo afterward, still savoring the thought of eating it. It could be a perfect archetype photo of this classic dish, but it has a blemish. A slice of beef landed outside the otherwise perfectly finished dish for presentation, and more important for documenting for posterity. As a sanity check I did a Google image search of "Hong Kong style stir fried beef noodles". I also did such search with "港色牛肉炒麵". Searching a dish with the native language tends to give you the more authentic results.

I could have taken a few second to move that piece of beef to a spot at 2 o'clock before taking the photo and tend digging in. I didn't as I am just a foodie blogger. I now regret that I didn't invest that few seconds. Can it be salvaged without making another? The answer is most definitely yes it I have a half-decent post processing tool. Only that I don't. I only have Mac Photos to process all my photos of late. I have a very old Photoshop Element from the early 2000s that is NFG.

the original candid photo of the dish

Mac Photos' primitive editing features

had I taken a few seconds to move the piece of beef as illustrated the photo would have been a archetype of this dish

here I used the smudge function to burr out the misplaced piece of beef

Update 2019 Jan 15:
I made another of this dish and this time I tidied up before taking the photo. Just looking at the photo each time make me hungry for more.


a near archetype photograph of this classic dish