Hi Asher,
Thanks and I'll give that a try.
I fear the worst as the original was a pretty crappy exposure.
John,
To go from a snap to a compelling picture is sometimes worth the extra devotion and can pay off in surprising ways.
Try assigning colors separately to B&W and thus you can bring out individual elements and build the image from what you have. You might, for example, convert the sign with one set of setting, (perhaps using two layers, hue/sat and then channels set to mono) to individualize just that part. Do this for each component and paint black in a layer mask for everything else. This way only that feature is expressed with that unique setting. Working through all the features you consider important, you can rank features using:
- allocation of color to gray scale
- contrast via an S-curve
- degree of sharpening
- extent of blur
What I do is to print out on plain laser paper B&W drafts and mark up features with a red wax marker working quickly and then using different sheets for different ideas. You might use, instead, a black soft pencil to accentuate or blur a particular element. If you have a lot of sheets, you can go through many alternate ideas very fast. You might even cut the paper and use an idea from one with another, combining your moments of inspiration. This exercise frees one of the disciplined approach in editing through photoshop as everything done fast and with the mind making total concepts that PS slows down.
I know I write a lot that one might say more succinctly as "think outside the box" but I also wanted to share my approach in case it's of some value to you here.
Pictures like this with an immediate energy are worth working on. The effort might or might not bring this particular photograph to a new level that satisfies you more. Still, it will give you tools that will help in the next picture you build from your snaps!
Asher
