I think this is an excellent portrait for anyone who "doesn't do portraiture."
You did a great job. It looks like a "strong" portrait of a man. Gives me a good impression of the person.
It is so nice I just won't even say anything about the "minor" things I see.
I will say this: I do like that you kept the head in the picture frame and you also did a very good job of using the light to define the shape of the face and figure.
Crop is too tight on top for a view that wide. The best balance in portraits, regardless of crop, occurs when the eye line is kept around the upper third of the frame. In all but extreme close-ups a gap above the head is needed for framing balance, but take care its not so large the eye is pulled up off the face to check it out.
Cropping at the bottom just below the crotch is awkward especially since the contrast of the lighter pants will attract attention away from the face. I added space on top for balance and darkened / blurred the bottom to make pants /crop less of a distraction. Crop is a question of balance and natural divisions of the body. Cropping just above the waist is a natural division for a H&S shot. For a 3/4 length shot like this one cropping a bit wider more above the knees than just below the crotch is more natural and balanced. Rather than stuff the hands in the pockets in a 3/4 view of the body, which cuts them off, have a guy loop his thumb in the pockets and show the hand.
The pose is natural and masculine and relaxed. But straight and level heads looks very static and stiff in portraits due the the vertical sides of the frame. That's something you need to watch constantly when posing because the natural inclination for people is to level their head upright. There is a very subtle difference in the edit. I rotated the head to the left a few degrees to get it off dead level and illustrate the difference in body language a slight tilt can make: less stiff, more relaxed and in context with the rest of the pose.
The skin tone highlight is a tad darker than should be in well exposed B&W giving the highlights an overall flat appearance. I brighten the face bit and darkened everything below it a bit to make the face contrast more. The face also looks soft and out of focus slightly. I selectively sharpened it: first the entire face and then the eyes and mouth area a bit more. Eyes and mouth are what create most of the emotional reaction. Keeping them sharp and everything else less sharp by degrees help draw and hold attention on the face. That works in conjunction with blurring the bottom pant to pull the eye of the viewer up to the face and keep it there.
Really nice Eric. Nice light, good gaze, and I love the grainy B&W. A classic portrait.
I like the subtle adjustments Chuck made. A couple other general tips for next time: on the head room, I often crop into the hair on headshots, but very rarely on 3/4 or wider shots. And almost never should you crop right on the hairline. Either in the hair, or give it a little headroom.
And be conscious of the wardrobe. The white stripes on the dark sweater, the darkest part of the frame, draw the eye away from the the face. Patterns and prints can be hard to make work cuz they tend to distract. And the transition from dark sweater to light pants also draws the eyes since there's a competing light area with the face. Tonality, especially when converting to B&W, can have a big impact on the photo.
I know nobody really likes commenting on pics that don't have hot models in them so I really appreciate it. It's something I'm not good at and wanted to try and teach myself. I actually consider myself a very good location photographer but I have always struggled with traditional portraits in the studio.
Steady
Thank you. Althought you can pick out those things if you'd like. Mostly the pants were bothering me and the tight crop at the head. It is a self portrait which makes it difficult to frame. It ended up being a little tilted and that was the most that I could straighten it without losing any of the head. That was the one thing that bothered me the most.
Cgarnder
Thank you. Looks very nice. That crop is about what it was before I had to straighten it. Thank you for taking the time to remind me how much better it is. I always do basic stuff in photoshop but I hate fixing photographic mistakes. It's good to recognize them and remember not to do it in the future. Those are all very good points and they are exactly what I needed to hear.
Chris
You do sound like Chuck. Thanks for the input. Looking at it now, all those points are much clearer. I guess you just need someone to point out the obvious (and not so obvious) sometimes.
