One of about 40 shots I did of myself this morning
Lighting setup was simple. Flash though an umbrella set about 45 degrees to the right of my face. (Or that was the goal anyways). There was a bit of ambient light from the basement window.
Processing was also simple.
In Capture One Pro:
Auto correct exposure
Auto white balance
Default sharpening (100)
Export to TIFF
In PSP XI
Channel mixer adjustment layer to convert to B&W (60,30,10)
Resize
USM (1.00, 100, 10)
Export to JPG
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First off, this is a very strong portrait, that has a very nice, relaxed look to it.
Compositionally,I like the vertical orientation, but it feels a bit tight on the right. A wider crop would have made it feel less cramped, I think, and would have helped to counterbalance the good use of negative space.
Technically, exposure and focus are good on this shot. I see littlegett's comments about lighting, and while I wouldn't argue with them, I do like how the light "falls off" of through the frame. To me, it imitates natural light and also gives a bit of depth that even lighting and even "highlighting," sometimes doesn't do.
Overall, I think it is definitely an "above average" portrait.
At for notice this is an extremely solid image. The tones are nice and even and the clarity is good. Since this is a nice strong piece, I do not have much to say on 'fixing' anything. So I will talk about what I would do differently to make it pop a bit more.
One aspect to really make the portrait stand out from the rest would be to use a rear light at 45 degrees to form a nice highlight line. This line should catch the side of the head down the jaw just a little and follow through the shoulder and arm. This is just a thin line of light that allows the subject to really break out away from the background and add a touch of depth.
A hair light on the dark side high above the models head and narrowed to just highlight the hair on that side I believe would also pop the subject forward.
I am guessing the basement window is what 'aided' the dark side of your face from going completely dark? I nice bounce would work there as well. I think if you used something to bounce, foam core or reflector it would create another shadow line that would add more depth and character to the model.
Last item is the watch seems to have caught a bit of light and the glare really draws the viewers eye down. A slight more angle or even removal of the watch may help.
Even though my ideas are not 'classic' portrait lighting technicals I think they may be fun even just to try out and see what happens. Just do not forget to baffle the rear light from spill and camera flare.
Overall this is a strong classical portrait. There does not seem to be a lot of 'wow' or 'pop' but most classic portraits don't. Very nice work with the single light.
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