Male Portrait II (b/w)

[Digital]

C&C welcomed. Bruce

[DanK]

It's an engaging portrait. I'm not a portrait photographer, but seeing this series, I have to ask: where is the light coming from, and where do you want it to be? You're getting hot spots on the foreheads and shadows below, which suggests one light positioned above. Is this the effect you want?

You can easily change this to some degree in postprocessing simply by dodging and burning, but the hot spot on the forehead will be problematic.

[Manfred M]

Bruce - looking at the catch light in the eyes, it looks like you are using camera mounted, direct flash. That gives you hard and uninteresting light and is probably the least attractive way to light any subject.

[Dave Humphries]

Hi Bruce,

I'm no portraitist either, but my thoughts go as follows:
The flash looks to be slightly above and left of lens and was no doubt used to counteract overhead lighting Dan mentions.
This was may have caused mixed colour temperature sources, prompting the monochrome.
If mine, I would crop about 3% off the RHS.
You have captured a great expression, this is something I find very difficult, my brain overloads on the camera and lighting and forgets to talk to the subject to get this kind of reaction - well done.

Cheers,
Dave

[Digital]

Dan, Manfred, and Dave, thank you for your comments.

Bruce

[mugge]

I like the pose and I agree with Manfred, Dan and Dave. However (and it is not cheating) much can be saved by dodging and burning.
Cheers Ole