That is exactly what they do.
I have to admit.
My immediate reaction on reading this bugs me.
I don't like the fact that they are essentially 'airbrushing out' anything
they don't like to make it a prettier picture.
Don't get me wrong.
Of COURSE they have every right to do what they want to their images
and we all agree the Damien is a world class imager but I would always
work under the umbrella of:
Process the hell out of the image if you wish but don't ADD anything that
was not already there.
There is a whole area in photography dedicated to burning out or
brushing up images.
As far as I can tell from what Eamonn has said is that it is an
actual phenomena caused by the atmosphere on Mars it's self.
Why would you possibly want to essentially get rid of it so!?
It's an important part of the image so.
I did a bit of reprosesing of Damiens Saturn pics before and you can
clearly see he dark fills the area inside the rings and also as far as I can
make out fills the shadow line on the ring also.
I have to say I'm not liking that.
I don't mind a cut n paste job to position the image
but I think the image should be just processed to tease
out the best information in it and to make it look appealing to the eye.
I mean where does it stop?
Colour filling the GRS to make it more 'Red'
All that aside,
I'm delighted now I asked him in Astrofest to come over.
He seems like a really chilled out , nice guy.
  