what I'm trying to do is aligning graphics within a `tabularx` and `subfloats` environment.

Basically I want to display an process/workflow using 5 graphics, having 1-3 "connected" and 4+5.

This is my code: I tried two different approaces but both are not very well aligned:

```
\documentclass{report}
\usepackage{pifont}
\usepackage[svgnames, x11names]{xcolor}
\usepackage{graphicx}
\usepackage{caption}
\usepackage{subfig}
\usepackage{tabularx}

\newcommand\bigleftArrow{\color{Tomato2}\rotatebox[origin=c]{180}{\scalebox{2.4}[3.6]{\ding{225}}}}
\newcommand\bigrightArrow{\color{Tomato2}\rotatebox[origin=c]{0}{\scalebox{2.4}[3.6]{\ding{225}}}}

\newcolumntype{C}[1]{>{\centering\let\newline\\\arraybackslash\hspace{0pt}}m{#1}}

\begin{document}

\begin{figure} [h]
\begin{tabularx}{\textwidth}{@{}*{5}{>{\centering\arraybackslash}X}@{}}
  \subfloat[text 1]{
     \includegraphics[width=0.28\textwidth]
     {example-image-a}}
      &
      \bigleftArrow
      &
  \subfloat[text 2]{
     \includegraphics[width=0.28\textwidth]
     {example-image-b}}
      &
      \bigleftArrow
      &
  \subfloat[text 3 is longer as  the others text text text text text]{
     \includegraphics[width=0.28\textwidth]
     {example-image-c}}
     \\
  \subfloat[text 4]{
     \includegraphics[width=0.28\textwidth]
     {example-image}}
       &
       &
       \bigrightArrow
       &
       &
  \subfloat[text 5]{
     \includegraphics[width=0.28\textwidth]
     {example-image}}

\end{tabularx}
  \captionof{figure}[]{long text 1}
  \label{fig:merge}
\end{figure}

\begin{figure} [hb]
\begin{tabularx}{\textwidth}{X m{10pt} C{110pt} m{10pt} X}
\centering 
  \subfloat[text 1]{
     \includegraphics[width=0.28\textwidth]
     {example-image-a}}
      &
      \bigleftArrow
      &
  \subfloat[text 2]{
     \includegraphics[width=0.28\textwidth]
     {example-image-b}}
      &
      \bigleftArrow
      &
  \subfloat[text 3 is longer as  the others text text text text text]{
     \includegraphics[width=0.28\textwidth]
     {example-image-c}}
  \\ 
  \subfloat[text4]{
     \includegraphics[width=0.28\textwidth]
     {example-image}}
      &
      &
      \bigrightArrow
      &
      &
  \subfloat[text5]{
     \includegraphics[width=0.28\textwidth]
     {example-image}}

\end{tabularx} 
  \captionof{figure}[]{long text 2}

\end{figure}

\end{document}

```

The problem is, that I want to have the arrows vertical and horizontal centred in each row. But this is my outcome:

[![enter image description here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/BB85J.png)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/BB85J.png)
[![enter image description here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/6Ysvw.png)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/6Ysvw.png)

---

and this is how it should look:

[![enter image description here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/fNltn.png)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/fNltn.png)

Can someone gives me a hint regarding the alignment (or an other approach if necessary to fix this)?