I can appreciate the spirit of that photo...but I disagree that there are things you can't fake. For example...
...this is
not a photo.
This digital painting of a Chicago scene was unveiled at Photoshop World in Miami on March 22, 2006. It is a panorama of the Damen Station on the Blue Line of the Chicago Transit Authority.
Adobe Illustrator was used for generating the majority of the basic shapes as well as all the buildings in the Chicago skyline. The rest was created in Photoshop.
• The image size is 40 inches by 120 inches.
• The flattened file weighs in at 1.7 Gigabytes.
• It took eleven months (close to 2,000 hours) to create.
• The painting is comprised of close to fifty individual Photoshop files.
• Taking a cumulative total of all the files, the overall image contains
over 15,000 layers.
• Over 500 alpha channels were used for various effects.
• Over 250,000 paths make up the multitude of shapes throughout the scene.
The realism is astounding, even minute close-up details.
The front face of the train was created in its own file. The reflections in the windows were added once the train was placed in position within the overall image.
The side of the train car was created in a separate file. Duplicating that file made it easy to add additional cars.
The duplicates required changing the reflections in the windows, the accumulated grime and the car numbers to make each car appear different.
Every symbols, every piece of text and every logo you can see in this picture was created in Adobe Illustrator.
The grime was created with Spatter brushes, available within the Photoshop brushes palette, which were modified to randomize the effect.
The rust was created with the same Spatter brushes but with Color Dynamics applied. The rust was in a separate layer that was also given a layer style of Inner Shadow to add the dimensional effect of the rust appearing under peeled paint.
For comparison, here's the real thing.
This kind of artistry really makes you question what is real, and what is not.
