The old crop and straighten move in street photography

[fike]

I know which one I am leaning towards, but I am interested in other opinions.  This is a rather interpretive image looking into the sun towards the Washington Monument from the US Capital in DC.

[Johnny_Johnson]

Hi Marc, I personally like the cropped version the best but - maybe leave just a little more room under their feet.

Later,
Johnny

[Bruce Cox]

I prefer the first one.  It is jaunty like the young men. 

For me, the sun dominates the cropped version to its detriment.

[Dale Villeponteaux]

I prefer the first.  Placing the people close to the center vertically emphasizes them.  The cropped versions has the Washington monument competing for attention.

Regards,
Dale

[jjj]

Split the difference. Uncropped version has too much space at bottom and cropped variant is cut too close to pavement edge, attracting ones attention.

[Eric Myrvaagnes]

Split the difference. Uncropped version has too much space at bottom and cropped variant is cut too close to pavement edge, attracting ones attention.

+1.

[luxborealis]

+1.

I'm with jjj and Eric.

[BobDavid]

The sun behind the building competes too much with the most interesting part of the picture. I  think the crop below makes for a more compelling image. You might want to remove the lens flare between the young man's legs in post.

[fike]

I am liking the halfway crop on the bottom to remove a bit of the empty road space, but I think I will keep the sun.