Crop or not.. C&C please

[EleanorW]

Warning - to anyone who has trouble looking at animal pelts, please don't scroll down.

I took this picture at a historical site in Saskatchewan, Fort Carlton, last week. Now while I also am 'squeemish' about animal pelts, there's something about this one picture I really like. My question is should the bottom of the image with the other pelts and chair cropped out of the image, or leave it as is. Should anything else be adjusted? I like the way it turned out but I'm sure it can use improvement.

f5.0, iso 100, 1/5 shutter and it was on program

 

[benlonghair]

Too bad about the chair, it's kinda distracting. I might crop the edges on the side out, but what I'd really want to do is straighten the boards in the background so they appear level.

 

[EleanorW]

Camera was on a tripod and was completely level. It's the old building that had sloped walls.

 

[bigtwinky]

Tripod or not, whats important is what the viewer sees in the final product. So unless you are going for a slanted look as a representation of something, I'd also straighten those boards.

As for the image, its an interesting one, but not sure that cropping could help. That stuff at the bottom (chair, pelts) is pretty distracting, but cropping it out would leave me with an empty feeling as I wouldn't see the bottom of the pelts.

The image looks a bit on the yellow side, probably due to the colour of the wood walls.

 

[benlonghair]

Of course, the problem with straightening the boards is that the pelts won't hang straight anymore. I'd rather have background off level than the subject defying gravity.

 

[EleanorW]

The pelts being level is what I based my image on.. I do agree, the sloped walls is a little distracting but the pelts not being even would drive me nuts lol. I'll play with the color a bit and see if I can make it a little less yellow.