The names David OK!

This man really looks menacing. Very good portrait!..... Kind Regards, Rosario.

:o)

Very nice picture of an interesting face. The hands of a workman, especially old hands are always interesting, the wrinkles and scars of an old hand attest to years of work could have been highlighted a bit more. the worn ax with the wood grain and rust on the head could also help instill a sense of this guy has done and seen a lot, these could have been illuminated and sharpened a bit more. The hat with a bit of shadow and the eyes looking straight forward is absolutely great. the right ear is a bit over illuminated and is a bit in the reddish hue. the contrast between the darker left shoulder and lighter right shoulder and vice versa with the shirt front balances well and is pleasant to the eye. Overall a very interesting picture because when you look into the eyes it does makes the viewer wonder what he is up to is he good or evil. Thank You. DV

David:- Thank you for taking the time to comment your last sentence sums up my intention in setting up this image.

The focus is intended to be the face and as it was shot in natural light at f1.8 there is not much hope of bringing out detail in the ax and the hands that would detract from the focus on the face. In fact the lower part of the image has been toned down to move the emphasis to the face. I had one judge who suggested further darkening his right arm but I will pass on that one. The lightness of the ear is natural as that is the direction the main light is coming from the dark area to the left is in fact where a window is poring light in from the rear and I have taken it down to black.

Regards

Stephen

To my eye this seems to be a forced and completely unoriginal cliché. The man is not even remotely scary; nor is he hammy enough to be fun. He's just dull. In addition, the focusing is weird (why are the eyes out of focus?) and the colors kind of limp — undecided. Looking for something to like about the picture ... the background is nice ...

Julie Your right David is the nicest gentleman you would wish to meet a real pussy cat! Eyes a bit soft well at f1.8 its not to surprising.

But sorry to say my experience is that your opinions are in the minority which does not make them wrong or invalid.

To me, the image's best element is that it portrays David as somewhat of a Dickensian character. I don't think he looks menacing - just intense. - - - I am bothered by the presence of a rather large watermark, which is rather distracting.

The stubble on his chin and the hair on his forearm seem an odd choice for point of focus when dealing with the narrow dof of 1.8. In such an obviously contrived shot it's not like the photographer couldn't have taken the time to get the focus right.

He does look a gentle soul with loads of character in his face.

It should read "The name's David. OK?" As it reads now it seems his name is David Ok. The portrait is quite good, although a lighter touch on the clarity slider on the face might have made it less obviously "processed". The eyes are not in the plane of focus. Perhaps a smaller aperture and resulting greater depth of field would have brought both into satisfactory focus and improve the result.

Picture of a man with an axe to bear, but what of it? The image gives no reason why he should. Is he a murderer or a woodcutter? The content needs to contain more than just a man and an axe. I'm also unhappy with the secondary light to the right of his face (as we see it): that to me is what makes the picture look pretentious and, well, plain wrong. He would have been much more menacing if that side of his face was dark!

Excellent processing and expression.

Amazing!!!

nice pic!

Determination in its best.