I am in the learning mode...so all C&C are more than welcome good, bad just say it..
This picture was taken with OneLight...what do you thing i should have done different to make a powerful photo but pleasant..Light placement( high etc.)aperture,focus and so on..
I learned bits here and there and playing with it. Off hand I don't have anything specific to point you to. I confess I have many books and videos around I haven't bothered to read or view, including retouching ones, although over the years I've watched many Youtube videos I stumbled on. Most of my techniques I use I copied from videos I've blundered into or discovered by trial and error. I subscribe to the Kelby Training videos and they are good. I can recommend those. However, if pushed I'll admit a seldom spend the time with them I should. I guess it's because the methods I see others use don't stick in my memory whilst the ones I find the hard way prove more memorable.
Without spending on Lynda or Kelby Training videos, perhaps you have the time to search youtube for "photoshop clone stamp tutorial" or "photoshop selection tutorial" or similar phrases. There is a lot of drek out there but there are some useful gems, too. Unfortunately, I never thought to bookmark the good ones. The folks in the Post-processing and Printing forum can probably point to to good resources. They tend to be more organized and methodical about such things.
Many things done well here: facial angle is well balanced and key light well placed. But a digital sensor cannot handle the contrast of a single light without fill. A second light chin level under lens would lighten the shadows neutrally without changing the key light's 3D modeling.
Varying fill indepently allows shifting the perception of subject mood from thoughtful and reserved (dark shadows) or more open happy and willing to engage the viewer (lighter shadows). It's just a matter of starting with a clear idea of how you want the viewer to react and adjust fill accordingly to project that mood.
Compositionally it winds up a floating head. Showing more of the shoulder would give it balance with the amount of negative space.
+1@ the relationship to the amount of negative space impacts balance. From a 'traditional' pov, the "floating head" can be less than ideal, but for me it works on this one to help with that sense of power ("controlled confidence" maybe) as though he's just walked in room.
Collectively, we have presented multiple versions with different amounts of negative space. Taking a look through them comparatively provides some input as to how the balance effects/changes the mood and relative strength of the subject when just the negative space relationship is changed.
I know i've repeated this often but the OP hasn't heard it so regulars forgive me...
I approach composition of my photos and C&C of others by asking what is most important to the story I want to tell, or I think other photographer did. Then I ask myself how can I make it contrast most in the frame so it pulls the view to it and holds them there. The next questions are what if anything to I need them to see before getting to the focal point — foreground or background context to understand the action, or lack of it at focal point. Finally after getting to the focal point do I want the viewer to stay there or wander off and explore the rest of the frame.
The answers to those questions are not the same for all photos it's just a compositional framework like compositing a sentence and making sure it includes a subject noun, a verb, and deciding if adjectives and adverbs are needed and whether they should go before or after.
A conventional H&S looking at camera portrait has a very simple message — I want you to look at me. If the person is looking away or eyes are shaded it sends a different message.
There is a historically conventional way portraits have been composed since the were drawn on walls of caves. The face is on top above the shoulders. We are so conditioned to that convention that perception studies where eye tracking is used showed people shown a photo will automatically track where they would expect to see the face as a way to see if there is in fact a face in the photo. Not all the time, but enough of the time in enough different photos that the psychologists considered it statistically significant.
So part of what happens for me, and I would suspect other is that the fact this photo isn't composed conventionally creates a "Hmm... this is different" emotional reaction when the face is finally found on the far right. All of this is subliminal and instantaneous but it is what will trigger the next thought "What the hell is he doing over there?"
This is where the photo = 1,000 words kicks into gear. There is no caption or backstory so you brain and mine make one up. Your will be different than mine because your life experience is different. For all I know the Dude is your cousin. You brain processes the clues — hat, shirt — and decides what he's about. Then your eye wanders off the face again.
In that context to the OP I'd ask, what's the story you wanted to tell here with the unconventional crop? Was it an expression about the subject, or more one of "gee it would be more creative if I did something unconventional". I'm not making a value judgement about that — I've established I think its a great portrait — it's more food for thought about his growth as a photographer who knows how to have the viewers react in the way that is intended. To me that one measure of how effective a photo is.
