Self portrait
converted to B&W with channel mixer
adjusted brightness and contrast in an adjustment layer and used a mask to very the levels in different areas
cloned out a few gray hairs and spots :)
cropped
usm
resize
further light usm
save for web
Statistics
Place: 14 out of 183 Avg (all users): 6.4719 Avg (commenters): 7.1379 Avg (participants): 6.4235 Avg (non-participants): 6.5000 Views since voting: 1233 Views during voting: 341 Votes: 231 Comments: 33 Favorites: 0
It's amazing, the english language. One word can evoke 4 different expressions in one challenge, and 5 photographs. However, for me, pensive means a hesitant discomfort or fear.. as in a child's first encounter with petting a tame snake.. or similar circumstance. The mood I am feeling from this subject is one of contemplative anger, or frustration. More along the lines of angst, if you will. However, this is merely something for you as a photographer to consider for the future, and doesn't affect my scoring.
Now to what does.. I like the lighting, but the shadow on the eye is a little to strong. Perhaps were there less shadow there, the "frustration/anger" that I am getting wouldn't be so prominent. The furrowed brow as well, is more angry than hesitant or fearful, and this is made more prominent by the lighting also. The photo also seems a little over-sharpened, and pixelated. Personally, I would have loved to have seen a more "grainy" element to this shot, but I realize that would mean disaster in a DPC challenge, so I don't begrudge you that.
A nice portraiture overall, good blacks, a decent tonal range. A little mre work with getting the facial expression right in this lighting would have done wonders.
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