Hi Ed, Urban street photography in black & white seeks to clearly show life moments without the distraction of color. In photojournalism we have only tonality, dodging/burning, and cropping to manipulate. The image is somewhat busy. I think you wanted to bring out the bicycle and food truck aspects. A narrower depth of field would help by blurring 'Baldor' and the buildings down the street. The image would acquire more feeling of depth and simplification by limiting depth of field. Is this a cell phone image? Could you vary the f-stop and depth of field?
Given the image as taken, I cropped and burned the background to simplify the picture. I brought up the face in the food truck. Why does the customer have his face completely covered? Karl   Posted: 02/09/2025 11:36:20

Ed

This image captures an ordinary moment on the street. I think your angle/viewpoint is good showing the man purchasing food. If this is your story, I think a tighter crop would be more effective.

My eye is drawn to the truck with the white signs and mid tone, not the man purchasing the food.   Posted: 02/09/2025 21:10:54

Judith and Karl your suggestions are greatly appreciated!   Posted: 02/10/2025 09:20:44

Hi Edward - i love black and white city scenes! A challenge to find interest in ordinary life. but even in ordinary scenes, it's important to remember the rule of not having too many things to focus on. The image needs to have a major focus. So I think that Karl's cropping really helps by cropping out the second guy in line and even taking a bit off the bikes. I do wonder if your goal is to focus on the food truck or the guy buying the food? But the cropped version helps a lot. Also, I can't tell if it's just because it's a smaller image, but Karl's image seems a little more contrasty and maybe a little sharper, which helps too.   Posted: 02/16/2025 16:26:59

I would not change a thing. Great photo. The B&W typically simplifies things but due to depth of field a few things are not quite clear.   Posted: 02/21/2025 09:44:00