Portrait of a Male

[Digital]

I shot this pic in July of 2016 as an experiment. The on-camera flash was positioned behind me at about a 45 degree angle, My only regret is that there are no catch lights in the eyes. The camera was set on manual, with the flash on TTL. The settings were f/6.3, 1/250, and the ISO was 400. The pics were initially underexposed, which I corrected in LR- there is some noise in this pic. The room was lit by fluorescents; however the ambient light had no significant role in this shot. Finally, I changed the background to a more neutral color from the original background color.
C&C most welcomed.

[Shadowman]

At first read I thought this was a self portrait but after re-reading understood that it wasn't. Nice control of most of the shadows, the crop is a bit severe, focus is a bit soft but may have as much to do with processing as the actual capture. Looks good in lightbox though.

[Manfred M]

John has identified two of the issues I see as well:

1. Crop is too tight, which also means that the position of the subject's head is a bit awkward;

2. Missed focus - the shirt is sharp, but the eyes are not. Single focus point setting in camera and focus on the eye closes to the camera. Then press the shutter release half way down and reframe the image before depressing the shutter release fully works very well; and

3. The eyes are in a bit too much shadow. A single light coming from above often has this issue and you need a second light source from underneath acting as a fill light. This does not have to be another flash; I often use a white reflector that comes from the bottom, just out of the frame to throw a bit of light upward. You can dodge the eyes a touch in PP if this has happened too.

4. I find that the shot is a bit overexposed.

[Digital]

Any better?

[Manfred M]

Any better?

Yes, but as you get better / more experienced with flash you will start seeing the issues with it.

[Digital]

Yes, but as you get better / more experienced with flash you will start seeing the issues with it.

Thanks Manfred for your comments.

Bruce

[Digital]

As Manfred pointed out the eyes could have been sharper. If you do not have the eyes nailed down, it is not a good portrait.
Another point is that the light could have been more diffused. It appears that the light is still somewhat flat. There are no shadows to give the face dimension. Broad lighting would have helped here. I believe it would have be better to position the subject's head so the light lit the side of his face turned towards the camera.
IMHO, it would have been better if I shot this pic in the portrait mode as opposed to the landscape view. As a result I could have decreased the flash to subject distance (for the view of the subject I wanted), and possibly avoided underexposure of the subject.
The only thing I believe is redeeming about this pic is that I had good contact with the subject.
I would like comments on what I related above. In other words correct me if I am wrong.

Bruce

[Wandjina]

I am going to go out on a limb here and suggest more cropping. The model's arms are folded and his hands are hidden. I always like to see the hands ... but since they are hidden, chop them out completely.
As there are no catch lights in the eyes, I would also brighten and sharpen the eyes so that the whites of the eyes stand out a little.
Also I would have asked the model to wear a different coloured tie, maybe a dark blue, green or another complimentary colour. I feel there is a clash between the colour of the tie and the colour of his hair.
Just my thoughts!