B&W Portrait

A portrait of me taken while at home with the last remnants of pink

eye. So I figured I would try a self portrait. What do you think?

Too dark? I wanted it dark, but is there enough detail in the shadows

on your monitor?

Good self portrait Paul. Nice key light and very sharp. A little more back kicker to separate your hair/head from the background would not be bad. But a good shot just the same.

KW

Thanks for your comments, Kelly.  I was thinking the same thing with more of a kicker for separation from the background.  Maybe I will retry tomorrow.  Cheers.

A small tweak to finish this image.  Puppet warp is such an awesome tool!  I also lifted the darks a bit to bring just a little more detail in the background, and brought up the shadows in my face a little.

Yeah, this works well for me -- I think you have enough light on the face.  I agree with Kelly about getting a bit more separation of your hair from the background, and though you've moved in that direction with your revisions, I think a bit more is needed at the top.  On the other hand, maybe this bit of uncertainty is good for the image -- I'm not sure.

Thanks for your input, Stephen.  It was a lot of trial and error to get to this point, especially since I was shooting with my timer, and manually focussing.  As I mentioned above, I agree that a hair light would have been nice, but I don't see myself going through all the hassle to shoot myself again like this!  My main concern is that I have learned from doing this exercise!  Take care my friend, and all the best.

Paul