cigar

[ARIANA1985]

ok , this is my first ever time to request a critique (i never had guts to do it ) - please be as harsh as possible
i shot this picture in a natural door light in a dark room

[markgozz]

You've captured a really gritty image with bags of attitude , it looks like he is coming out of the darkness with something quite menacing in mind .

Mark

[OldBoy]

Looks a bit like Robert Mitchum the actor. Cracking shot and composition. Agree with Mark, gritty with a hard edge.

[dan123]

Brilliant shot, Moody and Gritty, Great portrait

[ARIANA1985]

Thanks for your replys guys (uff it wasnt as bas as i thought) :-D

[amk1977]

A great shot Ariana. Its a very gritty portrait, which is right up my alley. The subject looks quite menacing. I'm guessing the baseball bat and the guy tied to the chair with the broken legs, were just out of frame lol.

The only thing I would suggest is to "dodge" the catch light in the eye just a touch, in Photoshop. If the existing one is too dark, then try using the shape tool. Draw a white rectangle much bigger than required (I go for about 2 inches wide). Then use the warp and perspective tools in the edit menu, to achieve a convincing looking shape. Once done, simply reduce the size using free transform, position over the eye and adjust the opacity until it looks completely natural.

I quickly did the above in Photoshop. The change, although tiny, does make quite an impact to the portrait and find you are drawn and linger on the eyes much more. See what you think?

[ARIANA1985]

Thanks for the edit but there was a reason that i didnt want catchlights to be much visible -to focus attention on a cigar and a smoke that comes from his mouth :-)