Street photo critique please

[louoates]

I came upon this shot from Chicago last year and was pleased with it enough to show here. It was one of those happy moments when two images came together in one shot. What do you think?

[Slobodan Blagojevic]

Shouldn't that "c" be cropped out at least? Or perhaps experiment with a much tighter crop than that, to concentrate attention on the hand/face similarity?

[Heinz]

Got to agree wth Slobodan, that 'c' pulls your eye from the image.

[RSL]

Lou, pull the "C," convert it to B&W, and you'll have something. It's a good grab.

[Eric Myrvaagnes]

I agree. This is one shot that should be cropped tighter. I would crop in from the right to get rid of the C and also the shoulder (or whatever) that is in front of the lady in the bus. Then, to get back to a less-skinny rectangle, you could probably crop some off the bottom, keeping just enough of the hand to complete the image.

Eric

P.S. Even Russ agrees (somewhat), although he prefers the euphemism "pull" to the more drastic word "crop."

[Rob C]

Thing is, it's actually three images, in that I realised that I'm sitting here in exactly the same position, propping up my chin and wondering if I'm tired enough to go to bed...

Glad I don't live on a boat: it's blowing hell outside.

Rob C

[popnfresh]

Even Russ agrees (somewhat), although he prefers the euphemism "pull" to the more drastic word "crop."

Terminate the "c" with extreme prejudice and monochrome that sucker!   

[louoates]

I'm actually a cropping maniac so I will put the snips to this one, no problem. And it would be much better in b/w. Nobody got the "C" for "candid"? Oh, well, a-cropping and a-desaturating I shall go. May take a few days to re-post. Thanks for the input, all.
Bus stops are good city "hunting blinds" for these kind of shots especially with the contrasts between high-end high-energy ad pitches on the bus billboards and the passengers.

[RSL]

P.S. Even Russ agrees (somewhat), although he prefers the euphemism "pull" to the more drastic word "crop."

Actually I was thinking more "clone" than "crop." Also, I'm not sure I'd get rid of that shoulder. I'd have to try it and see. I think the space in front of the real woman is pretty important.

[Rob C]

As ever in life, it's the model who's the centre of interest. Don't clone/crop/edit her away! ;-) You'd certainly better not change her colour - the PC police would get you!

Rob C