Im not a huge fan of the darkened background simply because it looks so obvious that it was done. The image would probably look considerably better without the darkened background.
Scary amount of detail in the skin but appropriate for this fellow. The burning in of the background was clumsy. There should never be a halo when you do a burn. It draws attention away from your subject and rivets it on your technique.
Bob,
So there I was really enjoying your first image (logically assuming there wasn't a second one) and wondering why you even mentioned how many squeeze boxes the man owned- since the image held no clue.
Finally I scrolled down.
Thanks very much for visually showing me some context .
To me, that makes a big difference.
Charlie
There's nothing inherently wrong with background darkening. (Burning in) The issue is simply that it was done here in a way that made the adjustment obvious. It shouldn't be obvious.
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