Gent street moment

So one of the hard drives in my laptop crashed a couple of weeks ago...of course, the one with my entire photo library on it. Very sadly, I discovered that while I had backed it up recently enough to save 99% of my pictures, I did lose the entire 1500-or-so shots from a trip to Belgium in the beginning of the summer. I had uploaded a few zips of "best-ofs" for my gf at reduced size (something like 2400x1600), so it wasn't a total loss (and Aperture resized them effectively enough that most of those will be printable up to 12x18)...but it's freaking awful to lose all of those RAWS.

Cut to tonight: I find one of my favorite 5 or 6 shots from the trip in full-sized, PP'd JPEG format. It's a bit oversharpened and retrievably oversaturated, but I was thrilled that a hi-res version still existed. So, I offer it up for criticism. I'm particularly interested in the PP on the color, as I can't seem to get it quite to where I'm happy. Please do your worst on everything, though...I really want this to be a successful image, but I don't want to go around printing it if it sucks!

Note that this'll be printed at 12x18 or higher, which will take advantage of the niftiest aspect of the shot: the girl staring oddly at the approaching biker.

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I like it! There's the obvious focal point of the guy on the bike, but there's also enough stuff to keep my busy once I've looked at him
I think the saturation on just the rider should be reduced a bit though. It's usually a good indicator that you've over saturated when skin turns pink/orange.
Maybe crop it so the guy on the bike isn't so deep in the corner of the image either.
Very nice

You might want to play with a 2:1 or even a 3:1 panoramic crop.....there seems to be a lot of eye distractions in the upper 1/3 of the image....With a crop right above the the arched roof building, your attention is brought down to street level where things are happening.

I LOVE all the repeating circulars on the lowest level , then the scroll/language signage,the panes, the rectangles, the brick,ETC!!!!!!

I would buy this because of all this,and I never once looked at her looking at the bike rider

And not to be *artsy* but a very smooth B&W could be very Parisienne

Excellent work - I'm glad you were able to retrieve something.

David

Thanks all! Woolburr, I had actually pondered the pano idea before. I think it's a matter of how much of the sidewalk should stay in. I'll give it a shot! Unfortunately the photo is already a bit cropped, and the original uncropped version is lost forever.

Flo, I've tried B&W (I'm a big B&W fan), but it seems to take away a lot of the impact from this particular image. Might give it another crack, though.

cptrios wrote in post #12852324
Thanks all! Woolburr, I had actually pondered the pano idea before. I think it's a matter of how much of the sidewalk should stay in. I'll give it a shot! Unfortunately the photo is already a bit cropped, and the original uncropped version is lost forever.

Flo, I've tried B&W (I'm a big B&W fan), but it seems to take away a lot of the impact from this particular image. Might give it another crack, though.

I love it as is!!!! Was only wondering what it would look like, but I agree, the colors in this are striking.

Flo wrote in post #12852348
I love it as is!!!! Was only wondering what it would look like, but I agree, the colors in this are striking.

Well it was wrong of you to suggest, and you can't blame me for being as horribly offended as I am.

Ask and ye shall receive! Here are a few options. I imagine some middle ground would probably be best if this were the route I was going to take. (And yes, Silver Efex Pro is the best plugin ever).

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Losing the originals definitely stinks....being able to have the full frame to experiment with crops would certainly simplify things. Color is definitely the route to take....the b/w conversions just don't do justice.

I love it! Especially the final crop. Amazing what a crop can do. I loved the first original version but the crop is much more exciting for some reason to me.

Yep, you were totally on track with keeping the color version, and I still like the original, cropping loses so much texture and repeating shapes.

I like the final crop. The original photo is cool, but I find myself looking at the top of the photo and my eyes get stuck on the wires and the reflections when you really want me looking at the bottom of the photo. I love the color version.

I agree that there is a bit too much to in the top of the photo and the colors are a bit over saturated. Try a crop above the green windows and see what you think of that. If you really want to accentuate the relationship of the rider and the woman, crop it even lower, just above the first windows and the "icicle" lights.

I really, really like your final crop. My first impression after looking at your original submission was that it was just too busy (too many wires, I guess) up top. Cropping all that chaos out created an awesome shot. Sorry you lost your originals.

Thanks again everyone...I'm definitely feeling the crop (not sure if it's that one exactly yet). This is far and away the most responses I've gotten for anything around here!