<p >Right away I thought this should be a black and white image as it is lacking in any great color. That, and I have always felt that city scenes look somehow more “mentally realistic” in black and white. I admit I am biased toward black and white, but with nearly any industrial, news or social scene, if it has limited color I see it right away in a black and white style, in my mind.</p>
<p >I would like to emphasize again that it is important to talk about the steps you took to process your version of the images in this forum. I know many of us process photos and then don’t actually recall all the steps we took, but if it can at least be summarized that would be great. I personally open up a blank Word or Text document and write or edit the steps as I do them. This helps me then recall for this forum what I did! I am not one to have a good memory. I am actually trying to learn from this forum how some of these “astounding” images come about via post processing.</p>
<p >Because this image is so small it is hard to get a good post processing experience. Too many pixels are gone. but I tried it anyway.</p>
<p >1 - I cropped in such a way as the main subject was at the two-thirds line on a grid. I wanted some of the grungy ceiling in there to get the subway feel. Cropped mostly the right side and some foreground floor. I enjoyed the mysterious dark figure on the far left as this is a part of the NYC subway feel (mystery, danger, dark characters, stress). I could have cropped all the way up to the main figure. I wasn’t sure if I should.</p>
<p > </p>
<p >2 - NIK Silver Efex Pro 2. This is likely the best black and white post processor on the planet. I chose a preset of “Antique Plate II” and upped the blue filter to 43 percent. This brought out the little person in the background more. I changed the “Grains per pixel” to make a smoother photo. I decreased the brightness also. I set the overall contrast at 22 percent.</p>
<p >3 - I placed a control point (which NIK Silver Efex Pro has) on the mystery man on the left and made him darker and more contrasty.</p>
<p >4 - I paced a control point on the “E” subway sign and added the color back in. Why did I do this? I wanted something that drew the eye around the photo, back and forth.</p>
<p >5 - I increased the structure some, which acts as a sharpening technique.</p><div></div>