I can't open your file to edit it in PS, but I think you could crop the right-hand side to place the bench along one of the thirds lines. As I suggested elsewhere, it might be interesting to shoot again using a telephoto and a wide aperture from further away to compress the bench relative to the background and put it in off-centre.
Hope this helps and look forward to seeing the result!
Nice shot, but I think the light is a little bright bouncing off the pavement. Not sure what you can do about it though, Peter. I'd guess that if you changed angles you'd spoil the shot. Have you considered channeling the sunlight down a carboard tube? ;-)
I also think the light is bright bouncing off the pavment, some lower lighting would set a better mood I believe..
I also think a shot from the front would be quite interesting..
Yeah, I do agree - contrast is a bit on a high side. It's possible to fix it using shadows/highlights in PS, unfortunately I don't have it at hand at the moment. A quick try using irfanview:
I'm never a big fan of a single focal point being centered... I really like what rokas has done. I think your shot has too much contrast, the area behind the bench being too dark (lost details) and the sidewalk & lower right being blown out (also lost detail)
Now a question for you... how does one upload photos to this forum? I can't figure it out...
This is what I came up with (very quickly) If I had more time I think I would try to get a little more detail out of the shadows, but I like the composition and square format.
