Is it crap?

[Ray]

Is this image worth anything? It's a shot I took 51 years ago in Tehran. When I began scanning my old film about 15 years ago, I rejected this at the time.

Now that I've decided to archive my whole collection of slides and negatives, for historical purposes if for no other reason, I wondered if this image is just crap. Should I bother with it?

The detail in the underexposed foreground cannot be brought out. I'm up against the limitations of the DR of the slide medium.

Whadda you think? Perhaps if I could read the Arabic sign, it might take on a new meaning. I would appreciate if any Arabic-reading forum members would advise me what it means.

[Christoph C. Feldhaim]

You should keep it for one simple reason:
You are not sure about it it.
You can still throw it away later or your heirs can do.
No one of us can properly judge this, since it is your image and your memories, your subjective situation.
Cheers
~Chris

[RSL]

What Chris said.

[Ray]

You should keep it for one simple reason:
You are not sure about it it.
You can still throw it away later or your heirs can do.
No one of us can properly judge this, since it is your image and your memories, your subjective situation.
Cheers
~Chris

Good points. But I can't even remember taking this shot. I have no memories of feelings or the circumstances. All I remember is that I bought a cheap, Canon, fixed-lens camera when I was in Tehran 51 years ago and took a few shots which are now very degraded. The name of the tower or the mosque that I shot, and the meaning of those Arabic symbols on the sign, might make the shot more meaningful.

[Christoph C. Feldhaim]

Good points. But I can't even remember taking this shot. I have no memories of feelings or the circumstances. All I remember is that I bought a cheap, Canon, fixed-lens camera when I was in Tehran 51 years ago and took a few shots which are now very degraded. The name of the tower or the mosque that I shot, and the meaning of those Arabic symbols on the sign, might make the shot more meaningful.

I just can say: Trust your doubt - even without understanding it!
If you understand later you will regret if you have thrown it away.
If it is really just crap it just takes a minor amount of storage space.
You lose nothing by keeping it.
Only exception might be there would be a really good reason to dump it in the dimp ...
Cheers
~Chris

[Ray]

Now that I've scanned it, I'm not going to throw it away. The reason I scanned it was  because I was comparing the DR of the Canon 50D with the Nikon 8000 ED scanner. The image has serious shadows. I wondered if the Canon 50D would be up to the job. It isn't. The shadows are much noisier in the Canon 50D image.

Having scanned it, I wondered if anyone thinks the image has any artistic merit. I guess it doesn't from the responses so far. 

[stamper]

B&W ?

[Ray]

Okay! B&W with some perspective correction. Is it now passable?   Shadows too dark. I'm such a stickler for detail. 

[stamper]

Better imo. The figure in the foreground could be burnt in to lessen the noise?

[Christoph C. Feldhaim]

I allowed myself a slightly different b/w edit - just to give an idea.
I used content aware fill and some other PS magic to correct empty spaces after the perspective correction.
Tones are not completely perfect, but it gives the idea.

After seeing your and my edit(s) I think we start getting an idea why you had doubts trashing it.

Cheers
~Chris

[Rob C]

Whadda you think? Perhaps if I could read the Arabic sign, it might take on a new meaning. I would appreciate if any Arabic-reading forum members would advise me what it means.

I think that roughly translated, it works out like this:

Shah baby, your time will come!

I could be mistaken - an alternative message in the script might be saying:

Hey, Paparazzo, get your own symbols!

Alternatively, it might just be a mundane sign advertising carpet bargains. Anyway - part of life's rich tapestry?

Rob C

[Chris_Brown]

Okay! B&W with some perspective correction. Is it now passable?   Shadows too dark. I'm such a stickler for detail. 

I prefer the B&W over the color, Ray. There's more impact IMO. The man in the lower left is confusing to me. I can't make out his face/head, and he's got a Terminator eyeball. I'd work some PS magic in that area.

Regardless, I dig that it's Tehran 51 years ago. It was a completely different world then!

[Alan Klein]

I like the shot as a foreign street photo.  It's interesting.  The tunnel effect frames the mosque.  Thcolors are interesting even with the greens.  The red sign lettering counters the other colors and the bluriness adds to the aura.  I'd save it.

[Ray]

I allowed myself a slightly different b/w edit - just to give an idea.
I used content aware fill and some other PS magic to correct empty spaces after the perspective correction.
Tones are not completely perfect, but it gives the idea.

After seeing your and my edit(s) I think we start getting an idea why you had doubts trashing it.

Cheers
~Chris

Hi Chris,
Thanks for the attempt, but I don't think you had enough information in my attached jpeg to do the best job with context aware. However, you've given me an idea. The texture on the door on the left at least adds a bit of interest to the image, so I've expanded it with context aware fill, a bit of selection/copy & paste, and some work with the healing brush.

I don't think I've ever worked on such a bad image before. The detail in the shadows is virtually non-existent.

If I decide to buy a kit for wet scanning, this slide will be a good test. The attached new version, scanned on my Epson V700 flatbed, is about the best I can do.

Cheers!

[Christoph C. Feldhaim]

Hi Chris,
Thanks for the attempt, but I don't think you had enough information in my attached jpeg to do the best job with context aware. However, you've given me an idea. The texture on the door on the left at least adds a bit of interest to the image, so I've expanded it with context aware fill, a bit of selection/copy & paste, and some work with the healing brush.

I don't think I've ever worked on such a bad image before. The detail in the shadows is virtually non-existent.

If I decide to buy a kit for wet scanning, this slide will be a good test. The attached new version, scanned on my Epson V700 flatbed, is about the best I can do.

Cheers!

Glad I could help.
You could try to make 2-3 scans with different exposure and HDR merge them in PS.
Cheers
~Chris