Januaryby
smardazComment by spiritualspatula: Hello and greetings from the Critique Club-
Since I did vote on your image, I’ll give you my vote and my thinking behind it.
I gave you a 6, personally, and if I were to give a summation of my vote, it would be that this is a competently done portrait, but lacks the oomph to push it beyond that.
You’ve got numerous things going well for you in this shot- the lighting is moody, and matches the expression well. The posing does not seem altogether awkward, but also is not terribly natural, either. I hate posing, both myself and other people, so I feel for you here, and can’t suggest much because I think I’m terrible at it. What I do like about the pose is that you’ve kept the joints bent, and because they aren’t uniform in any fashion, you keep a bit of dynamism present. The lighting itself is soft, and interesting, providing a nice texture to the shot through the shadows. One thing I would prefer is to have a bit more light on your right eye. It is slightly illuminated, but maybe a bit more would benefit things. If you turned/tilted your head ever so slightly you would illuminate more under your brow, while still keeping most of your cheek structure obscured. I assume you shot this yourself though, so it’s always hard to do such things.
One thing that I think detracts from things here, though, is what appears to be heavy dodging on the hand. I’m guessing it was much brighter and distracted the viewer, pull them towards it, and while you have muted its presence effectively, once one sees it, it looks very unnatural.
Photographer found comment helpful.
