Visual metaphor and photoshopping (music magazine)

From my target audience feedback on the firs draft of my music magazine from cover I was told that I needed my magazine to link more to the photograph. So as the model in the photograph is from the band 'The Cherry and Whites' I thought it would be a good idea to replace the letter 'a' with a cherry replicating this letter. However, I encountered a problem in doing this as the photographs I took of the cherry had a shadow behind which was unlike anything else on my cover. So I showed my photoshop skills and edited out the shadow. Here is the photograph

before and after:

after

before