I think that it is a great shot! The only thing that I see that is distracting is the little black part that is sticking out of his hat in the middle of his forehead. My eye keeps getting drawn to that, but that could be just me. Also not that big but it could be my screen but the bokeh to the right of his head looks more "fake" or like noise.
The dark area is a wisp of hair, the blurred bokeh is the real thing - perhaps back down the blur. Looking again, I think his left cheek should be toned down ever so slightly.
Now the left side above his shoulder is kludged together - original is a white-board with writing (prices) - not sure how to effectively darken that area.
You pushed the highlights down almost 2 stops below clipping. What I did above, entirely with Levels was:
1) Move input highlight slider left to lighten the highlights
2) Move the output shadow slider right to lighten the shadow values
3) Moved the middle input slider right to darken the midtones.
cgardner wrote:
You pushed the highlights down almost 2 stops below clipping. What I did above, entirely with Levels was:
1) Move input highlight slider left to lighten the highlights
2) Move the output shadow slider right to lighten the shadow values
3) Moved the middle input slider right to darken the midtones.
