I’ve been working mostly in black and white street photography, where the frame often depends more on weight, shadow, and timing than on clean description.
In this image, I let the blacks get quite heavy because I wanted the figure and the surrounding space to feel slightly hostile, not neatly readable. I’m never fully sure where that line sits: when does contrast become atmosphere, and when does it simply start eating the photograph?
Shot in harsh available light, edited with the shadows left deliberately dense rather than rescued.
Would you pull more detail back from the black areas, or does the loss of information help the image?
I like the dark parts, they go well with your purpose like you described it.
It's the bright parts where I'm not sure. As it is, it feels cloudy, overcast,, but you said there was plenty of light (and the car's windows are hinting at a bright sky too). I would try to allow stronger brightness = more contrast in the upper regions, and then see if it helps or not.