I'm going to submit one of these images to my local camera club for a monthly competition. I really cannot decide as to whether the color or the black and white has more impact. What say you?
In my opinion, I think the color has more impact. Lots of black in the image needs something to offset it.
The b&w image looks great. If this was my image I would open up slightly the shadows in the face. It is very possible the hand will gain more brightness needing to tone it down. That object to the left is acting as a distraction in my humble opinion and cloning it modifies the image and makes the viewer concentrate more attention on the worker. Just my opinion.
SRT101 you're right. Kind of back to where I started. I am surprised it was so evenly divided. I'm leaning towards the color one now, but I know whatever judge I get will say "I would've like to have seen this in B&W".