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There's this weird little narrow alleyway in Hornsby that leads to two open-air car-parks. It's in shade for like 90% of the day since it faces just off east-west in such a way that there's almost always something blocking the sun (I reckon early afternoon might be okay - must check that out on a weekend day once...)

Anyway, I just like the signs, and also the way the shape of the building is almost like an ocean-liner when you look at it a certain way. Upped the midtones, upped the saturation, upped the contrast:




I'd already added the black border, and cloned out the building on the other side whose roof was intruding on the top left corner of the photo, but even looking at it, although I kind of liked it I was still a bit underwhelmed .... it looked like a book cover begging for a title. Hence, an edit... something subtle



.... but I'm still not entirely convinced.

Comments, criticisms, advice, condemnation... all appreciated!

think there is way too much black.

dont think the black border helps this shot and the big black text is way over the top, to the extent of overpowering the image underneath.
If you need the text over the top you should probably look at reducing it's opacity quite a lot 50% maybe and see how that looks.
Right now my eyes fix on the text and go no further.

Steve

BT*ist wrote:... something subtle

Okay, I wasn't willing to give up on this just yet, so I did a couple of variants:




Despite the blowouts and the flared effect I think the colour inversion is the better way to go. Since there's nothing 'natural' in the scene, it looks to me more plausibly like a nighttime photo.

I'm going to look for something else to shoot, now

The third variation seems to be more punchier than the other versions. Usually with alley way and street pics, I try to make it as grungy and grimy as possible.