First off you have a very nice subject to work with. The focus and lighting is good along with the background. With that said a few improvements could of made this shot better than it already is.
Composition: The subject is placed well within the frame but I believe the POV that you selected is to close to your subject. If you would of opened up the angle between you and your subject (maybe a step or two) it would of given us a POV that would have rendered more detail and light that would have possibly taken care of the soft focus adding more light ultimately increasing your high contrast.
Focus: Your focus is good but soft overall which takes away some of the detail.
Lighting: Lighting is good however I think it would have been better if the light had continued higher up on the your subject instead of stopping abruptly below the ears. It would have been great if the light around the edge of the ears could have been as strong against the background as the light around the face and noise.
Color: Not much to say there. I think you did a great job with the B&W mode. I had to look close to see that the eye was actually in color, great job.
Post Processing: I don’t know how much post processing was done but you did a great job. The only distraction is the reflection in the lower left. I would of considered cloning that distraction out of the picture.
Overall: Good quality photograph that a mild amount of tweaking could of made it great. Keep up the good work both in taking your pictures and processing them. I hope you find this critique helpful.
This is definitely high contrast but the angle is a bit awkward to me. I'd like to see a full profile or a straight on shot. Horses have such interesting anatomy - I'd like to see more of it in this imaget. The shadowing under his chin is good and the light from one side is helping to create the contrast you are looking for, but it falls a tad short for me since he's "slimmed down" by the angle of the shot. 7
Beautiful idea. I love this perspective. I also really like your treatment of the photo. I'm thinking that if the light showed a little bit more of the ear, it could make this fine shot even better. Nice job.
Love the angle that you went with. The image evokes a feeling of loneliness and longing. The shadow is well used and I think this is one of the best on in this challenge. GREAT JOB