Camera Labs

I came across an older shot of this street musician in Lisbon which I wanted to process for an adequate look. Please give me some guidance.
The first one is the most natural looking:

Musician 13035.jpg by Thomas, on Flickr

Looking longer at the colors I was not too satisfied and thought of a b&w conversion:

Musician 13035 bw.jpg by Thomas, on Flickr
That almost totally eliminated the background and brought the face of the musician more into focus.

But I continued playing around with some other parameters of the color-version to see whether I could convey the air of this scene w/o turning to b&w stumbled by accident across the following emphasized colors:

Musician 13035_16.jpg by Thomas, on Flickr
Now the stronger Colors of the face (and the box below the dog) seem to nicely complement the blue of the jeans. So I feel that the face stands out better than in no. 1.

Please tell me which version you like most and whether you would try something else.

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Thomas (beware: Nikon-fanboy and moderator!) My Lens Reviews, My Pictures, My Photography Blog
D800+assorted lenses

I like it in black and white actually, I think the colours are distracting, especially the guy's jeans in the background.

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Nikon D5000 and D300 with 12-24mm, 35mm f1.8, 50mm f1.4, 60mm f2.8 Macro, 18-200mm, 17-55mm f2.8 (all Nikon)

Black & white is most of the times better for street,because colors can distract. I like your b&w version,I would enhance the vignetting a bit in the 2 lower corners.

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Gear: Nikon D80, 18-105mm, 35mm F/1.8, 85mm F/1.8, SB-600
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