a third of enthusiasmby
zuzhenComment by dewdodesign: Greetings from the Critique Club!
This is probably my least favourite subject to comment on as I do not have any experience when it comes to portraiture, so in that regard i'm not sure how helpful my comments will be, but I
will try to be as honest as possible about the way this shot comes across to me.
Composition
Fairly simple and straight-forward composition which works well for what you are trying to portray. My only niggle, I think it has been too tightly cropped on the left hand side and there should be a bit more space between his head and the edge.
The background is neutral and helps to make the subject stand out, but i'm not sure I like the way the background changes just above his head, I think it may have been better if it was a completely black background, but again this is only a niggle.
Lighting
The natural light from the window has done a great job in bringing out the detail on the left hand side of his face but is not strong enough IMO to add any real impact in this shot and there are too many dark areas. I know this was probably done with intention to add impact to the "whatever" i'm not bothered attitude you are trying to portray but there are other parts in this shot i would like to see but are annoyingly too dark.
I have no experience in using umbrella's or secondary lighting so unfortunately I cannot comment on how these techniques could be used to improve this image but i definitely think it would be worth experimenting with an additional light source from the right hand side.