Hammering

Silouette shots are always a pleasure

Strange cloud... really fascinating...

One last nail is driven before shelter is sought and night begins to

seep in. Belize, Central America, January 2002.

Peter, the silhouette definitely works. Technically, I think this shot is great.

 

Compositionally, I'm going to nit-pick. There is nothing wrong with the composition you chose. However, IMHO, I think you could have either framed a little wider, or a little tighter. Part of me wants to see the silhouette of the face of this worker, and what he's doing -- and the other part of me wants to see a large structure with a small lone worker on it.

 

Nevertheless, Nice shot.

 

The thumbnail doesn't do it justice. I missed the cloud the first time when I went through your portfolio. I think maybe its' central location does determine how you frame it although a little more contrast would be nice. I thought about the head, but it's not what the story is about. But the neatest thing about this, which is easy to miss, is the nail!

I'm finding this the hardest to comment on so far. Did you deliberately compose the shot to capture the nail? If so that's a great touch, if not claim you did anyway. It's a powerful image, for some reason it reminds me of being a kid. I'm struggling here so I'll stop now.

I agree with Vance ... this one is difficult to comment upon. Although I hate to focus attention on basic technical issues that may well be beyond Peter's control, the banding on the right side detracts considerably from his image. I would definitely clean up the left edge, too, what with the sliver of black tapering along the side. (One thing I find helpful with images such as this one is to add a 1-pixel black border. This more clearly defines the image and makes it stand out better from photo.net's white background.)

I think the subject matter is wonderful and while I can't say that I'm a big fan of silhouettes, I suspect it was exactly the right choice for this subject. Compositionally, I probably would have chosen to go with a square format -- with Peter's permission, I've cropped it as such below -- but barring that, I'd like to have seen just a smidgen more room left on the right side. To my eye, it just looks a bit too crowded as it is.

The silhouette works all right and the protruding nail is really fascinating. I'm not sure the cloud is very important in that composition. It neither adds or detracts, in my opinion.

 

Someone suggested a square cropping. Well, I don't like the square format and I already find that the frame is a bit tight on this worker. I'd keep the rectangle format, but I would add space in front of the worker, not behind it.

 

The massive structure IS somewhat of a distraction; if you keep only some of it, but add lots of empty sky, it emphasizes the idea of the guy working very high, alone, midway between earth and sky. It would makes the image more powerful, in my opinion.

I really like this photo.

 

The only thing that bugs me is that it seems the elbow could be a little darker; I dont like how you can see the tee-shirt. I guess I want a full silhouette here.

 

An excellent photo! The hammer and nail make his activity recognizable. I agree that the clouds are not a big plus or minus and also that I would probably prefer a full silhouette (in fact, the whole thing could stand to be darkened a bit-- I see vertical lines of what appear to be blown highlights(?) on the right). My last criticism is that you could probably crop off the left ten percent of the shot without losing much and tighten up the eye on the subject. Then again, you could do none of these things and still have a marvelous shot.

what are those lines on the right side? some cropping would be good I think.

Thanks for all the comments! This scan was actually one of my very first film scans on a bad scanner, hence the black sliver and banding on the right. A new scan will be posted shortly.

Compositionally I think the image works well. The banding on the right is quite disturbing/distracting. I don't really understand why his forearm and t-shirt are the only things that are not silhouetted. It almost looks like you tried to dodge that area, and it doesn't help the photo at all. The fact that we can actually see the nail he is hammering ... adds a bit of interest.

this is a really nice sillouhette, working out on a limb. It would be interesting if there were no supports under him. The background is a little distracting but overall it's a nice effect.