Street atempt -- C+C please

[marp]

Hi, today I tried something unusual (at least for me). Went to the streets and tried to get some interesting pics of the life there (Really don't know, why I haven't tried anything similar before). I like this one the most. What do you think?

Taken with Canon EOS 1000D with the kit 18-55.
ISO 400, F6.3, 1/30

Thanks for your opinions and tips on how to improve next time.

 

[ANDS!]

Came out a bit dark don't you think? Have you done any post processing work here?

 

[marp]

Came out a bit dark don't you think? Have you done any post processing work here?

I desaturated the colors and mixed the channels a little bit, to get the look I like most.
And there was a trash bin instead one of the poles, so I cloned/healed it out (replaced with a pole).

Here is a lighter version. (I also added some sharpening, forgot to do it with the first version).

 

[ANDS!]

Much prefer the second version. For B&W's, which I like to do is take the color image into the LAB-colorspace, duplicate the "Lightness" channel into a new file, convert that to an RGB-colorspace and then to LAB-colorspace, and do contrast/sharpening on that file.

I know a lot of people swear by the Channel Mixer, but I think actually working on the lightness channel, gives better results.

 

[marp]

Unfortunately, on the lightness channel one cannot see the writings on the building, which I thing make the image more interesting. Nevertheless thanks for the tip, I'll try it with a different picture.

 

[shmne]

I feel like it needs some kind of negative space, something to let my eyes rest and to increase flow overall.

Maybe even picking a more specific subject?

It just seems to me that there is a lot going on, but then again I tend to like simpler photos anyway xD I can't really talk