Great use of space to create mood. Tonal range is excellent. There is something about this 'Old Man' that speaks of something other than being 'old'. It might be his eyes? They do not seem to be 'old'. There is knowledge there and dare I say 'youthful' determination?
Somehow I never got around to this image (the challenge was one of the few I have not voted on) but I want to register how much I like this, and make one small suggestion.
I like it because it's intense and rich and real and doesn't try to blow me away with any sort of artificality or attention getting devices, compositionally or in post-processing. The image has DIGNITY and I appreciate that. The tonalities of the figure itself, and the face , are beautifully expressed. I'd personally wish for more expanded tonal range in the surround, but that's really an artistic choice and I can't fault you this one.
The one think I don't like, and it's a nit, is the faint haloing that shows where you have dodged the head. The feathered brush has affected the sky slightly, I think. When next you do something like this, make a selection of the head itself, and your dodging/burning will not affect anything outside that selection. You can use the magnetic lasso and then in the select menu shrink the selection a few pixels to be sure its feathering doesn't overlap to the sky, and that will work just fine.
Incredibly "National Geographic" type of shot; that's a good thing, in this instance. This is my favorite entry thus far (and, though I haven't yet gotten very far, I suspect that it'll not likely be "dethroned").
Great face. Interesting that his positioning, facing out of the frame but looking back into it, seems to make the portrait at once more candid and more dignified than would have any of the alternative 'conventional' compositions. By that I mean that he appears to be exerting some control over the image; he's more than just a photogenic prop - he's a participant in the photograph (it's not all about the photographer). Maybe it also helps to connect him a little better and more convincingly with his environment, too. Very nice! 9.
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