I really want to crop that bar out of the RHS but it unbalances it too much I think. Thoughts?

-- Nigel Smith (nlandgl@unite.com.au), September 03, 2001

Answers

I suppose you could crop it, but would it help to crop an equal amount from the other side, to keep the proportions right? I'm not sure what that would do to the composition as a whole, though.

I don't have Gimp or PS here at work to play with, so I've been holding my hands up over the monitor to try and see what it would look like.

Overall I like the shot but would like to see a bit more detail of his face. It's hard to get closer on a steam engine, huh? I have a couple of shots I took last summer on a train near here but I think they are too dark to scan properly.

-- Brian Reeves (bri1217@yahoo.com), September 03, 2001.

The appeal of this photograph to me comes from not ever having seen an actual railroad engineer shovel coal into the steam engine. Pretty interesting. I think grimy-dirty industry like this makes such an excellent subject for B&W photography.

-- Tony Rowlett (rowlett@alaska.net), September 03, 2001.

I think the bar give a nice feel that I'm looking into a confined space. Even if removing it didn't make the composition too tall and thin, you would lose some of the mood.

For me though, the photo lacks a sense of dynamism. It's partly his casual, dum-de-dum expression, but also the relaxed posture of his body. I'm not saying you should try to turn this into Triumf des Willens, but it needs some sort of edge if it's to keep my attention.

-- Struan Gray (struan.gray@sljus.lu.se), September 04, 2001.

I like that bar. Along with the one on the left I like the sense it gives of being in a confined space. For me the problem is that his face doesn't really hit me. Maybe you could burn in the bit of train (technical term there) above his neck and under his chin to make his face a bit more attention-getting?

-- Richard Poole (richard@ruthie.org), September 04, 2001.

hi people and thanks for the comments. I hadn't looked too closely at his facial expression but 'dum-de-dum' pretty well sums it up! Maybe I need to photoshop an grimace in!

-- Nigel Smith (nlandgl@unite.com.au), September 05, 2001.

Not much to add here except that I too wish there was more expression, of some sort.

-- Jeff Spirer (jeff@spirer.com), September 06, 2001.