Yep - OOF was what I thought at first glance. Also agree it could use a little more shadow for definition.

pawlowski6132: Some photographers swear by the soft-focus look; otherwise, you may wish to try an aperture of f/5.6 or smaller for capturing more image detail. Reviews of most lenses indicate that at the largest aperture, the lens shows the least sharpness.

In addition, you may wish to try a fast prime lens of 100mm or thereabouts for better results.

Although you didn't say, it looks like you may use auto mode camera settings.

Instead, try setting your camera to Manual mode. Set the custom flash function to 1/200 sec fixed in Aperture Priority mode. Set the aperture to f/5.6, the shutter speed to 1/30 sec, and the ISO to 100. The default first curtain sync will work in the studio. The flash fires at the beginning of the exposure, at a speed of about 1/1000 sec, thereby freezing the subject. The remainder of the exposure uses the ambient light.

You can easily vary the amount of ambient light captured by raising the shutter speed at any given aperture.

And of course you can vary the flash power for the exposure result you want.

pawlowski6132 wrote:
pilles wrote:
You only needed to sharpen just a little. Mainly the eyes. Oh, and crop off that empty right side. It just shows ignorance. If that displeases you look it up in the dictionary, because it shouldn't


pilles, are you suggesting - by cropping right side - I center the subject? I always thought that was a little boring.



Which is boring? Centered or off side? One is brainless and the other is standard. I can't imagine why you think the standards that have stood for centuries are boring. Perhaps to small minds, I suppose.

For a first go, looks pretty good. Now it's just practice, practice, andore practice!

pilles wrote:
pawlowski6132 wrote:
pilles wrote:
You only needed to sharpen just a little. Mainly the eyes. Oh, and crop off that empty right side. It just shows ignorance. If that displeases you look it up in the dictionary, because it shouldn't


pilles, are you suggesting - by cropping right side - I center the subject? I always thought that was a little boring.



Which is boring? Centered or off side? One is brainless and the other is standard. I can't imagine why you think the standards that have stood for centuries are boring. Perhaps to small minds, I suppose.

You just answered your own question, they're boring because they've been done for centuries the same way.

andypep wrote:
For a first go, looks pretty good. Now it's just practice, practice, andore practice!



thank you!

hope you don't mind I tried a differnt crop and added some contrast and sharpening
I thought it turned out pretty good and the original was fine

Thanx for the effort Todd. Great alternative view.