Goin' Gansta?

[speedneeder]

I was sitting around without much to do so I thought I would go gangsta! lol - if you knew me you would see the humor in that! Any comments or critique would be nice. Going for a 'not sure if I'm afraid of him or not' look while playing with a single light source and stuff on my head (in this case a hood).

[Donald]

That's good. I was playing around like that a while back and that's where the avatar I now use came from.

I think the image of your face is fine - don't touch it. But I'd wonder about darkening down the light on your chest. It pulls the eye away from the face. I like the wisp of light that we see on the edge of your jacket/shirt on the left (as we look at it). But there's a similar wisp of light wanders in a curve up the entire right hand side (aah, is it a hood you're wearing?). I'm not so sure that that works.

[Mark von Kanel]

Excellant shot brian but got to agree with Donald about the the hood, the problem in my opinion is because of the open neck line it looks more like the hood from a wizards cloak than the hoodie your were probly trying to portray?

[GrahamH]

Darth Brian? Sith Lord?

Moody. Nice.
graham

[speedneeder]

Thanks for your comments and suggestions. I have taken them to heart and made another attempt at processing.

[ChrisNikon]

Is there any way to match the face from the first photo with the hoodie from the second? Perhaps that wouldn't look right, I'm not sure. I love how the light looks in the first one on everything except the edges of the hood - I actually thought the edge on the left side of the photo was a smudge on my monitor until it wouldn't rub off.

They both look great!


Edit: In both this and the Santa photo, you have some great lighting. Is that just natural lighting or do you have a flash off on the right side of the pictures?

[Donald]

Yep, that'll do for me. I think that given you were wearing the hood up like that, then it had to be an integral part of the image ratehr than just a sort-of-hidden element.

What a good looking chap!

[speedneeder]

Is there any way to match the face from the first photo with the hoodie from the second?

How's this? It's not apples and oranges, but I agree with your premise.

[speedneeder]

Edit: In both this and the Santa photo, you have some great lighting. Is that just natural lighting or do you have a flash off on the right side of the pictures?

Hi Chris, both were taken with a flash. In this photo, just the one bare flash to camera right, slightly behind me. There is actually a dark window with drapes on it behind me, but you can't see those - fast shutter speed kills the ambient lighting in a shot like this.
For Santa's portrait, I used a shoot through umbrella on the flash to camera right to soften the light on his face, and I also used a second flash pointed at the wall behind the tree with a red gel on it - my walls aren't actually red! I think the color flatters Santa

[speedneeder]

What a good looking chap!

LOL, that's a good one, thanks for the ego boost!