Need suggestions

[sysonby]

I came upon this old bench during a visit to Berkeley. On the surface, it wasn't a terribly interesting subject but I was touched by the notion that someone probably spent at least an hour expressing their love for someone in such a permanent way in kind of lonely spot by the bay.

This is the original photo



and this is what I got after I started messing with texture



I'm not satisfied with either. Does anyone have any suggestions for improving this?

[Grandpa]

I took a copy of the board bottom on the left and flipped it over to fill the space top right.

Increased the midtone contrast, squeezed the levels a little, and then added a warmer tone and a slight vignette.

[sysonby]

Nice! Thank you!

That's the kind of thing I was struggling with last night.

[lynn55]

Hello sysonby,

What color does you like? orange, light blue, green or other colors.

I will change different color of letters.

[sysonby]

Lynn I gotta admit--your edit sheds a whole new light on what I thought it meant. Now I'm wondering what was missing after the apostrophe..."I love you Bebe, you [fill in the blank]?

Thanks for that :-)

[lynn55]

Welcome to you!

[lynn55]

[23dornot23d]

[sysonby]

Very nice suggestions indeed!

23dornot, how did you change the color scheme? I'm assuming that you used Photoshop but maybe I'm wrong?

[CoryJBucher]

Try this I sharpened it quite a bit and added a little contrast.