Printing down a phone line...

[Scott --]

Man's encroachment on history bit me today:


Short of a black Sharpie on the contact frame glass, is there a way to print down or eliminate that stinkin' phone line?

[Marko]

Photoshop?

<edit>
I like it, by the way
</edit>

[Dan Schmidt]

keep it

without the phone line that corner would be empty, and it plays off the cable in the bottom right.

It is a stronger image with the phone line, but it would be even stronger with something in the upper right.

[David A. Goldfarb]

Pencil on the neg.

[Sylvester Graham]

When you said "printing down a phone line" I thought you meant like a phototelegraph.
As in a fax.

[Andrew O'Neill]

It's a pity as that black line is very distracting. Can you reshoot the church? If you can then perhaps moving the camera either left/right or slightly forward would move the wire out of the image area.
If you cannot reshoot, then previous suggestions such as touching up the negative with a soft pencil (back side) would work and then spotting the print as required.

The dark tree on the bottom left also helps to balance out the composition once you remove the cable.

[John Kasaian]

If you're a good shot with a .357 and there aren't any cops around you might try shooting the phone line before you re-photograph the church

[Sandeha]

I'd leave it in the print.

If your book publisher wants it out then let them sweat it.

[Greg Lockrey]

Man's encroachment on history

What is history without man?

[Gene McCluney]

Traditionally, stuff like this was retouched on the negative with pigment, or pencil to become a white line in the print, then the print was retouched using spotting dye such as spotone to dye the white line down to match the sky.