Touching the Snake.

Every single time that I have had a look at this image, I find myself falling into the trap of judging someone by their appearance alone.

In other words, the serpent bearer looks to be as 'smooth' as a snake himself.

I don't know about the tarnished pewter finish impression. I find the guy's shirt to be superbly exposed/developed/scanned. I can make out the 'weaving patterns' in the fabric.

Apart from that, it appears that this cool customer has a slick sun tan, which seems particularly prominent on his forehead and face. Is that (partly) due to the Tri-X/Diafine characteristics, you were talking about, Lex?

Yes, of course...

I can remember at least one of those images, from five years ago.

The last one, I found to be particularly challenging indeed, for all the reasons you detailed above.

Ugh, yet another photo from which my comments vanished in a system glitch in 2010.  Yup, the "pewter finish" Peter described is very typical of midtones with Tri-X in Diafine.  It's an interesting and versatile  combo, but generally best reserved for contrasty situations, not overcast or deep  shadows like this.