The problem with the area beneath the main poster for the Black Angels is that it looks as if it were the perfect palimpsestic example! It gives a sense of ghostliness almost, as if it were there but not there at the same time. This is probably due to the presence of the wood grain beneath it, which, were the area on wet print, would look 'milky' as if it needed either more exposure and/or a little more development to bring it to a normal look. (That's one of the reasons I'm so glad I had an upbringing steeped in darkrooms - made understanding what a print might look like so much simpler!)
There's a good chance you've tried to be too clever with that door area - how does it look if you just masked off the walls and did a local, overall job with Curves on the door itself, without doing anything to the bits of separate poster inside the area? Then, if you felt like it, you cold reverse the job by masking the door itself and taking another simple Curves trip on the walls by themselves? The shot's taken with a sidelñight - why not try going somewhat darker over the entire picture, again via Curves, and increasing the contrast a tiny bit? I'm sure the answer lies within the Curves tool alone.
I've sometimes become very complex with masking and colour correcting small parts of a picture; generally, it leads me to confusion and that state of spiritual perfection where everything looks good and bad in equal parts. I'm not sure if it's the Nirvana you seek, but you might well find it by accident!
At the end of the day, nobody needs to be able to read everything on the posters - it's just the idea of the place and things one would want to express - IMO, as Cooter would write.
Rob C
