Carpenter photo - please critique

[guitarman3]

Hi, my daughter took this film photo with my Nikkormat (not a Canon, but I bought it about 30 years ago and she needed a camera for her recent beginning photo class). I thought it was a fairly good b&w photo, especially for one of her first serious attempts at photography. I'd love to hear what folks in the forum think about it. Sorry I don't have the exposure info available at the moment or even what lens she used. Could have been the prime 50mm that came with the camera or an off-brand portrait lens I bought for it many moons ago. I scanned the photo with an HP 4c scanner.

Please let me know what you think! Thanks

[Airedale1]

All the detail in the coveralls is washed out.

[neil_r]

I do not know how old your daughter is or how long she has been taking photographs, but assuming she is quite young and not been into photography for long.....

Aesthetically it is quite a pleasing picture, the hammer and the surroundings clearly show that he is a carpenter and his age and demeanor add pathos.

Technically I think the shot would have benefited from a lower POV so that the camera was looking directly at him rather than angled down, this would also have helped make him look less like he was looking at the floor, Airedale1 is right the highlights are blown on his coveralls.

I like it.

N

[dkord]

It's a nice shot over all.
Different angles is a good thing too. Also the subject working in his environment with his tools also help convey a mood and feel.
Ask her what kinda of message does she want to convey with the shot.
He looks old and worn out in this one.

About the wash out overalls, is that a result of scanning or post scanning imaging? Look at the neg, is it all dark with slight or no detail where the overalls are?

[guitarman3]

I appreciate the comments. My daughter was 29 at the time of the photo and had just enrolled in her first photography course at the community college. This was her first experience using an all manual SLR. She made many different prints of the shot in the dark room at different brightnesses so it's possible some are better than this scanned image. I'll check with her today about the message and the negative. Neil, I see what you mean by the POV. Lowering the camera a bit may have improved it. Thanks all.