you know, to me the original already evokes feelings of loneliness amongst urban sprawl... and really it depends on a viewers way of interpreting an image and whether or not they can appreciate what they are seeing. if i were to edit it though, to make it darker, i would have made a series of layers; some darker, some lighter and i would selectively erase various portions... dodging and burning along the way, too.
the version you submitted is just too rushed, and seems rather ineffective. my guess is people would disregard it as being poorly (overly) done. take more time, creatively and gradually make the image darker in areas and lighter in others according to your own preferences/ideas and i think you might have a little more success with it.
a black and white image, with more contrast might do better as well. sometimes it is easy for viewers to dismiss a colour street image as a snapshot... it just seems so common. everyone has cameras these days on the street... even in their phones. But for some reason many people view b/w photography as being more artistic, more meaningful... more professional. black and white has a way of simplifying things into a more basic and coherent composition. i'd say give it a try, it might even feel "darker"... |
