First

I cannot make any meaningfull comment on this one. I don't do portraits and doubt that I ever will. For what its worth though, I might crop quite a bit off the bottom. I think the lighting is fine. I like the introspective look on his face. Now, if his chin would have been resting on his fist, he would look like that famous scrupture! Some comment I read on a portrait said that the eyes should never be black on a portrait. I am not sure if that applies to this one, or if half the eye is allowed to be in shadow, and black on a black and white portrait. I wonder who we could get to critique this for you properly!

Thanks so much for taking the time to reflect your thoughts on this portrait Margaret. Always nice to read your comments.

 

Allow me to try and explain what I like about this image.

 

The young man in the picture is someone I met in photography class. He is a very gentle guy, nice to talk to, but he is also quite shy. And his shyness tends to hold him back.

 

For this studio session I was assigned to him and we took turns in taking pictures of each other. I noticed he wasn't comfortable being in front of the lens and that showed in every picture that I took of him. So I tried to get him to relax and show a different side of himself. And I think I succeeded in doing that in this particular portrait. I even had other people who know him come up to me and say the same thing. That's what I like about this picture: I see a different side of him. I'll let it up to others to decide what that is (although I have my thoughts about it). The fact that there's shadow around his eyes and that his eyes are nearly completely black doesn't really interest me. Partially because I only had one light source and no reflective boards or surfaces of any kind.

 

Thanks again for your reply, it's appreciated.

Yes he does indeed look relaxed. Well done.

I like the composition, but I am a bit disturbed because the parts of his face is a bit out of focus? I looks that way on my screen.

Needs a little sharpening I think, esp soft around his eyes.

Sensitive portrait, great lighting and composition.

Thanks very much to everyone for your constructive replies. I'll definately try to address these "softness" issues.

Jan 10th: addressed some "softness" issues. Corrections in PS were minimal, but enhanced the image in my opinion. I left the sepia version unaltered for anyone who's interested in comparing the two.

Please refresh your browser if you viewed this image before January 10th.

 

Thanks again to everyone who took the time to comment on this portrait.