Obey God Always

[HamdenRice]

I took this picture at the Times Square subway station about 30 years ago when I was an avid amateur junior high school photographer.

At the time, I thought the grafiti perfectly fit the image of the this seemingly devoted, elderly couple.

Recently I rediscovered 40 rolls of negatives from the that period of the 1970s, so after inquiries to photographers, including this forum, I purchased an Epson 4990 photo and negative scanner.

As I saw the picture appear for the first time in three decades on my screen, I had one sad thought, which is, we are pretty much guaranteed that the couple are now deceased.


This photo is the first I have uploaded to my Photobucket account, which I created today.

[TahitiNut]

1. Wow, you must really have the brightness on your monitor set high.

I had to amp up the brightness on mine quite a bit to see anything other than the flourescent lights. I often wonder how wide-ranging our monitor settings are.

Nice photo, though! Somber ... and nicely composed.

[HamdenRice]

2. Here I tweaked the contrast and brightness ...

I did indeed have my monitor on bright, so I was not enhancing dark pics. This is photoshopped a bit:



I'm not sure which I like more. The dark one evokes the subways in the 1970s more.

[DS1]

3. I took a different approach

and made a gradient mask so the bottom portion stayed darker, while the top was lit up more - then added a brightness layer to give the lights some more bang



of course, I'm a fan of letterboxing - you don't have to like it

[alfredo]

4. I like that much better. It looks like it came straight from the

pages of Life Magazine. You know, those compilations of the best photos of the past.

Great work.

Great story telling. Glad you didn't crop it. Keeping the figures small adds to the impact of the image. It is beautiful

I wonder what a bit more (targeted) contrast would do for the two people to bring them out from the dark background. If you can lasso the area to the right and lighten it to match the dark background to the left of his wife, maybe you can make him stand out from the background. It will make his right arm visible. Not sure that will make much difference in the image, but it would be worth trying just to see. Of course the light in the corridor ahead comes from the left, so maybe you could let it be. His arm is not important in the image.

There is a white speck above the G in God. Is that damage or dust on the original?

[HamdenRice]

5. Thanks for your kind words!

And thanks to all who suggested ways of improving the image!

[alfredo]

6. I believe we can all become better photographers by sharing our

experiences.

There are some other techniques I want to use on your image. It has been a great learning tool. They say you can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear, but you have given us a silk purse.

[alfredo]

7. I tried not to look at other versions of the images until I was

close to what I liked. I looked today and found my end product looks very similar to yours. I did use the healing brush on a few spots.

[superconnected]

8. I like this lighter version

For some reason this picture draws me to it. Something I'll remember.

Thanks for sharing.

[bvar22]

9. "guaranteed that the couple are now deceased"

No. You have helped them live on.
They now also live on my hard drive and in my mind and soul.
With your help, they reached out and touched my heart tonight.

[alfredo]

10. Well said.