Aea, the photograph was taken with a wide lens aperture, which is often necessary in indoor situations to let in as much natural light as possible to the camera. The drawback is that the area of focus is highly selective, and you lose sharpness on areas of the image that lie outside of this singular plane of focus. So, anything further away from the focus plane or anything closer to the camera from the focus plane will go slightly out of focus. Its the same effect you see on professional portraits where the background is fuzzy. Had the picture been taken from the side view of the staircase, all steps would be equally in focus because they would all have lain on the same focus plane. Hope that quells any suspicions that the image is "Photoshop'd".