Andre

[Manfred M]

This is a shot of André who is working on the horizontal bandsaw. He is preparing materials by cutting the raw material to size for further work by the machinists.

[DanK]

This one, I'm afraid, doesn't work for me at all. What grabs my attention is the bright red housing of the saw blade, which is a boring, almost featureless surface. Despite being well lit and high in contrast, the machinist is dwarfed by the machine. I think I would try this from the side instead, and I would probably tone down the red, either saturation, luminance, or both.

[RBSinTo]

This one, I'm afraid, doesn't work for me at all. What grabs my attention is the bright red housing of the saw blade, which is a boring, almost featureless surface. Despite being well lit and high in contrast, the machinist is dwarfed by the machine. I think I would try this from the side instead, and I would probably tone down the red, either saturation, luminance, or both.

Manfred,
Agree with DanK's comments on this one.
From the camera's point of view, there is no way to discern what machine is, or what the operator is doing, and so the photo does not stand by itself. And again, I'm not a fan of the subject looking at the camera, which makes the shot look posed.
Robert

[escape]

Not sure about showing workers without appropriate PPE for the job like gloves, face shields and safety glasses.

[Manfred M]

Not sure about showing workers without appropriate PPE for the job like gloves, face shields and safety glasses.

PPE is not required because all work stations have at least 6 ft / 2m separation, although many people do choose to wear a face mask. Some of the images I haven't posted yet will show that.

I have some shots with people wearing safety glasses, but these are not always necessary as many of the machines cannot be operated without safety covers in place over the work piece. That being said, safety glasses only need to be on when the machine is actually running They were not running while I was photographing people without safety glasses on.

I also wear safety glasses and steel toed shoes while photographing in this environment.

[Tom Barry]

The first thing that caught my eye was the man, not the red machine. The shot looks pretty good to me.

[escape]

Not crazy over pose. Left-arm missing below the elbow. The right arm separated from the hand doesn't work for me.
At this angle, he could rest his hands on the machine with a look like he owns it.

[William W]

This is a shot of André who is working on the horizontal bandsaw. He is preparing materials by cutting the raw material to size for further work by the machinists.

The lighting on the man is excellent. Not an easy job with those glasses.

The framing of his R.Hand is quirky, it really works.

The red area is big. If it were mine I’d crop it slightly tighter to lose a bit of the red area in the overall Image Palette.

I didn't see the red all that much as being 'too intrusive' because it's being used effectively as the Foreground Barrier. This is a technique not often seen nowadays in Portraiture.

The idea is to separate/isolate the Main Subject with the purpose of emphasizing the Main Subject. It's saying, 'hey, I'm over here on the other side': the technique is designed to create an interest in the Viewer's Eye to look at 'that other side' and hence the Main Subject. If this technique was being employed, the idea is not about discerning what the machine is, the machine is simply being used as a prop: the Subject is the Bloke, all else is just "machine stuff".

Of course there is now a conundrum that where we can't ascertain who does or does not read and who is or is not influenced by previous comments, before making their own assessment of how the image was seen by their own Viewer’s Eye and reflecting only that, in their commentary.

And the question to Manfred is: what was the purpose of having that red machine in the foreground?

***

Anyway, the original Image held my attention and for long enough to consider other interpretations, which Manfred might consider, if not for this one, for later, for future Portraits.

1. Thinking I would reduce the impact of the red area by going to a 1:1 AR, I got to this, and I keep the hand:


2. Reducing the impact of red area by cropping and keeping the same AR as the original, I got to this, but I lose the hand:


I have a definite opinion concerning which is the stronger of those two cropped images.

The salient point is, however, what are Manfred’s views? As I mentioned, I reckon the original can stand on its own strengths, as is.

***

Not sure about showing workers without appropriate PPE for the job like gloves, face shields and safety glasses.

Why?

What is the issue to be unsure about?

It’s simply an example of Portrait Photography, no purpose was defined, for example it was not purpose proposed as: “This is one of the shots for an Health and Safety Poster”.

WW

[Manfred M]

Thanks for the comments Bill.

This is part of a project I started earlier this summer as a photo project I started at a photography course I took this summer. The purpose of the course, called "From Capture to Print" is to produce a body of work suitable for exhibition.

The topic I decided to work on was to look at the modern manufacturing environment in the area where I live. My work background is in manufacturing and production. When I first finished university some 40 years ago, my first job was in heavy manufacturing (machining, sheet metal fabricating and welding). The entire workforce was Caucasian male and the machine tools in use were not a lot different than the ones that were used in the 1930s.

Jump forward to 2020. I made contact with a small local machine shop in town, where sophisticated computer controlled equipment and an ethnically and gender diverse workforce do high precision manufacturing, much of it aimed at the high tech and aviation industries; they manufactured parts for the Mars rover spacecraft and for the docking mechanism on the spacecraft that travel to the International Space Station. Working in the COVID-19 environment adds an interesting overlay. While I am primarily concentrating on the employees that are from ethnic minorities and the three women working in the shop, I also want ensure people realize that the industry is still dominated by white men.

I am looking to photograph everyone (around 20 people) to ensure that everyone feels engaged and part of my project.

From a technical standpoint, the lighting is terrible (cool white fluorescent tubes), so I am using a single studio light with medium softbox and often times a large silver reflector. In general, there is really only one place I can place a light stand in each of these shooting situations. I can generally find 1 -3 distinct shooting positions, depending on the individual work station.

The project is primarily about the people, with the machines and other shop equipment to show the shop environment. I expect I will be taking some shots of the machines and work pieces in the machines as part of the story telling.

Some of the images will be going onto the company website, while the rest will end up in my portfolio and will likely be included in submissions to some shows. Style wise I was looking to the post-photographic / deadpan genres, but am not sure if I am going to be able to get there. These folks are not models and have learned to smile in formal shoots. I curse those school photographers that programed their subjects to say "cheese!".

Final output is likely to be A3+ or larger prints on baryta paper.

[William W]

Very helpful, thank you for the detailed Brief of Intention.

[Manfred M]

The course description can be found here:

http://spao.ca/capture-to-print-2020se

The instructor, Michael Tardioli, has an interesting pedigree. He was Karsh's colour printer for a number of years.

For B&W work, he had his own lab and print maker, but in that era, colour printing was sent out to a custom colour lab. Michael was one of the lab techs and Karsh liked what he did with his images, so used him exclusively for colour work. He told me that it took a whole day to produce a large format final print for Karsh. That's a lot of dodging and burning.

Karsh had a younger brother, Malek, who was a well known landscape photographer and Michael also did his colour print work.

[Thornton]

I like the exposure of the man but agree with others about the composition and pose. Clearly he is in a workshop environment but it is not really clear (unless you have knowledge of the subject) what he is doing, beyond standing behind a sizeable piece of machinery. But I have more reservations about the pose. He is looking directly into the camera, and not at what he is working on, and this seems artificial.

Julian

[Wandjina]

I like the image. It is clearly taken in a machine shop and it is of little consequence as to what the red machine is and does. The operator is well lit and he is interacting with his machine and the photographer. It is an environmental portrait and, yes, it was staged. But so are most portraits. There is nothing usual about a machine operator looking up from his work. The image captures part of his daily life in his workplace. Well done!