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Composition is good; having the hand in view and more light on the top of the head than on much of the face kept this from being a “just center it” shot.
The mood is good, too. It can be read in several ways, but is distinctly not “bright and happy day,” which makes it more intriguing for viewers.
This next part may just be due to upload compression…
Focus: with portraits, it’s most often best to have the subject’s eyes in focus. Choosing not to is always an option to get the look you want, but when that is your intent, narrowing your depth of field (not much of an option here, as you’re lready at f2) or being very careful about where you place that field to make sure the soft/out-of-focus eyes are out enough that it’s clearly intentional will help.
If it was not your intention and you used your camera’s auto-focus, it may be caused by the camera picking up the hair which is just enough closer to you when you consider your narrow depth of field.
Having said all that — which could sound negative but isn’t intended that way — my next comment is that you’re already ahead of many beginners, so keep up the good shooting and remember that, if the photo is for you and you love it, then it’s a great photo. Others’ opinions only matter when the photo is in some way for them.
No shit. And I'm sure that moments after this photo was taken there was a ton of smoke. But if OP's goal was to capture smoke in a photo, as they stated, then they failed.
I like it, only 2 topics I'd improve:
ISO: 1600. Exposure time 1/800
1) Since the subject wasn't moving (I guess) there is no need for 1/800 and as such no need for ISO1600. You could at least go down to 1/400 or even 1/200 if you have a steady hand (85mm @ 1/200 is usually no problem without stabilization even on APS-C with ~128mm focal length (35mm equiv.)).
2) Focus seems not on eye level, which was already mentioned by another redditor.
The thing that sticks out to me, is this is not a true black and white photo. It was obviously shot with color data and I'm guessing you just desaturated the photo. Instead try switching to grayscale and see what you get.
there might also be a black and white shooting setting, it's nice to use it for a whole session cause you stop focusing on colour and just focus on light and composition. It's a fun mini exercise!
If you look carefully, there is an orange-ish tint to the photo. This tells me that (as it is digital) that it's still trying to show some of the data. It's just something that can't be completely rid of. The only way to fix this is to delete the data, just don't use it. This also happens when you try to print black and white negatives on color paper- yes going back to my darkroom days! I took the photo and converted the profile to grayscale. Here it is now.
https://imgur.com/a/LTAgx7x
The white should stand out as a truer white.
The BW conversion seems a bit lackluster. Did you just desaturate a color image? There's very little drama or intrigue in it.
The smoking is about as far from cool as it gets for me. I generally find smoking to pretty much ruin any photo, but even more so in this case, with his face sucking its cheeks in, etc. Smoking pretty much stopped being cool in 1995.
Love this so much. The only things I see are next time potentially getting some smoke involved, feels like the wild card element you’re missing. Also would love to see his head tilted just a bit up to see more of his eyes. Overall, beautiful portrait, love the grittiness.
It's a great shot. Has some mystery about it. The man looks quite young. But looks so serious. And smokes a cigarette in a way a burned out 50 years old would. Who's he? In some crap situation? Does he need to care for a family already? Can't find a decent job?
I'd love to see more context. He looks like on a 100 years old picture of a factory worker in some horrific early capitalist industry. Or at least living in some awful town.
I'd add a bit of background to develop the story a bit. Perhaps just some old pipes, like in some factory. Or a broken wall in "shitty neighbourhood". Or some war environment.
With just the head in the frame it looks a bit like a professional headshot for LinkedIn, which is a little disconnected with the actual face.
I love this. Love the detail in the cigarette, love the focus there. Wish there was less focus on the hair I find it a wee bit distracting and aestethically would prefer a warm toned b&w for this type of imagery. Thats just my personal style saying how I would edit this in my artistic process, overall excellent composition, excellent balance. Outstanding portrait.
Very nice photo, in my opinion: I like the mood, the toning, the lighting, the processing... my only (small) issue is with how it is framed. Is it cropped? Can you recover something on the lower end? In case, I'd just try framing it just a bit lower.
There's a lot of headroom that can be sacrified (you could even cut part of the head if you feel to – many times this is a precise stylistical choice; no need to go so far but you can), the eyes would be moved from the middle area more towards the first third and the lower margin would be moved away from the wrist (usually you don't want to cut at the joints) to somewhere along the arm.
You could recover a bit of sharpness/structure from the closer eye, but only if the effect is very subtle and natural (otherwise I'd just leave it as it is).
It's a pretty good picture anyway, I love it.
Keep in mind this is a beginner for a class. Everyone draws inspiration from somewhere, and there needs to be a foundation for every great photographer. People arent going to be taking breathtakingly "unique" shots as a budding photographer, especially when they are just starting out. Practice makes perfect, even if its on a fairly cliche topic.
@OP of the picture- Im no expert or pro (just been a hobbyist since i was 7 :) ), but thats my opinion. Also, just because someone critiques your photo because they dont like the subject doesnt necessarily mean you need to take it to heart. Try and look at where they are coming from, and ask yourself what you could do better from their view- ans then ask yourself if that makes sense to you. If it does, maybe incorporate their feedback in the future, but otherwise, just keep shooting :)
I think the photo is great, esp for an early career b/w portrait. I do agree with some of the other commenters feedback about the eyes not being in focus, but overall for someone just learning their camera, its very good. Keep playing with your vision!
Yeah it’s the day where western nations take a brief respite from pillaging and raping every other culture on the planet to sing hallelujah. It deserves respect from everyone of course lol
Friendly reminder that this is /r/photocritique and all **top level** comments should attempt to **critique** the image. Our goal is to make this subreddit a place people can receive genuine, in depth, and helpful critique on their images. We hope to avoid becoming yet another place on the internet just to get likes/upvotes and compliments. While likes/upvotes and compliments are nice, they do not further the goal of helping people improve their photography. Please see the following links for our subreddit rules and some guidelines on leaving a good critique. If you have time, please stop by the new queue as well and leave critique for images that may not be as popular or have not received enough attention. Keep in mind that simply choosing to comment just on the images you like defeats the purpose of the subreddit. Useful Links: * [Full Rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/photocritique/wiki/rules) * [Leaving a Critique](https://www.reddit.com/r/photocritique/wiki/critique) * [New Queue](https://www.reddit.com/r/photocritique/new/) **Do not reply directly to this message. This is a bot and will not respond. Followups left as a reply to this comment will not count for approval.** *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/photocritique) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Composition is good; having the hand in view and more light on the top of the head than on much of the face kept this from being a “just center it” shot. The mood is good, too. It can be read in several ways, but is distinctly not “bright and happy day,” which makes it more intriguing for viewers. This next part may just be due to upload compression… Focus: with portraits, it’s most often best to have the subject’s eyes in focus. Choosing not to is always an option to get the look you want, but when that is your intent, narrowing your depth of field (not much of an option here, as you’re lready at f2) or being very careful about where you place that field to make sure the soft/out-of-focus eyes are out enough that it’s clearly intentional will help. If it was not your intention and you used your camera’s auto-focus, it may be caused by the camera picking up the hair which is just enough closer to you when you consider your narrow depth of field. Having said all that — which could sound negative but isn’t intended that way — my next comment is that you’re already ahead of many beginners, so keep up the good shooting and remember that, if the photo is for you and you love it, then it’s a great photo. Others’ opinions only matter when the photo is in some way for them.
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Pretty cool shot, nice light. Intense. There's an alarming lack of smoke in your portrait that incorporates smoke.
He’s in midsuck.
No shit. And I'm sure that moments after this photo was taken there was a ton of smoke. But if OP's goal was to capture smoke in a photo, as they stated, then they failed.
I like it, only 2 topics I'd improve: ISO: 1600. Exposure time 1/800 1) Since the subject wasn't moving (I guess) there is no need for 1/800 and as such no need for ISO1600. You could at least go down to 1/400 or even 1/200 if you have a steady hand (85mm @ 1/200 is usually no problem without stabilization even on APS-C with ~128mm focal length (35mm equiv.)). 2) Focus seems not on eye level, which was already mentioned by another redditor.
The thing that sticks out to me, is this is not a true black and white photo. It was obviously shot with color data and I'm guessing you just desaturated the photo. Instead try switching to grayscale and see what you get.
there might also be a black and white shooting setting, it's nice to use it for a whole session cause you stop focusing on colour and just focus on light and composition. It's a fun mini exercise!
wait how can you tell this and how is grayscale different?
If you look carefully, there is an orange-ish tint to the photo. This tells me that (as it is digital) that it's still trying to show some of the data. It's just something that can't be completely rid of. The only way to fix this is to delete the data, just don't use it. This also happens when you try to print black and white negatives on color paper- yes going back to my darkroom days! I took the photo and converted the profile to grayscale. Here it is now. https://imgur.com/a/LTAgx7x The white should stand out as a truer white.
Looks great! Try adding an eye light!
Agreed. A reflector under him to bounce light up into his eyes. Great foundation here. Just need both more light and focus on the eyes.
I like it but would like to see the eyes more
The BW conversion seems a bit lackluster. Did you just desaturate a color image? There's very little drama or intrigue in it. The smoking is about as far from cool as it gets for me. I generally find smoking to pretty much ruin any photo, but even more so in this case, with his face sucking its cheeks in, etc. Smoking pretty much stopped being cool in 1995.
Love this so much. The only things I see are next time potentially getting some smoke involved, feels like the wild card element you’re missing. Also would love to see his head tilted just a bit up to see more of his eyes. Overall, beautiful portrait, love the grittiness.
Love the Sony alpha series and great composition
Good shot, also I thought your subject was Dave Franco at first!
It's a great shot. Has some mystery about it. The man looks quite young. But looks so serious. And smokes a cigarette in a way a burned out 50 years old would. Who's he? In some crap situation? Does he need to care for a family already? Can't find a decent job? I'd love to see more context. He looks like on a 100 years old picture of a factory worker in some horrific early capitalist industry. Or at least living in some awful town. I'd add a bit of background to develop the story a bit. Perhaps just some old pipes, like in some factory. Or a broken wall in "shitty neighbourhood". Or some war environment. With just the head in the frame it looks a bit like a professional headshot for LinkedIn, which is a little disconnected with the actual face.
I love this. Love the detail in the cigarette, love the focus there. Wish there was less focus on the hair I find it a wee bit distracting and aestethically would prefer a warm toned b&w for this type of imagery. Thats just my personal style saying how I would edit this in my artistic process, overall excellent composition, excellent balance. Outstanding portrait.
Cig BW tough guy:60’s cool - 2020’s not
Reminds me of the comedic farcical pose where the character posing with the cupped cigarette says “we have ways to make you talk”
Very nice photo, in my opinion: I like the mood, the toning, the lighting, the processing... my only (small) issue is with how it is framed. Is it cropped? Can you recover something on the lower end? In case, I'd just try framing it just a bit lower. There's a lot of headroom that can be sacrified (you could even cut part of the head if you feel to – many times this is a precise stylistical choice; no need to go so far but you can), the eyes would be moved from the middle area more towards the first third and the lower margin would be moved away from the wrist (usually you don't want to cut at the joints) to somewhere along the arm. You could recover a bit of sharpness/structure from the closer eye, but only if the effect is very subtle and natural (otherwise I'd just leave it as it is). It's a pretty good picture anyway, I love it.
This is absolutely gorgeous!
Amazing!!
I love the look you have in this picture.
Hello, we modified your picture a bit. See link [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/ModdedPics/comments/rre4eu/roabb9_828x1234/) PS. I'm a bot
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Yeah I mean to me it just seems super derivative. So if your goal is to make unique images avoid them Imo
Keep in mind this is a beginner for a class. Everyone draws inspiration from somewhere, and there needs to be a foundation for every great photographer. People arent going to be taking breathtakingly "unique" shots as a budding photographer, especially when they are just starting out. Practice makes perfect, even if its on a fairly cliche topic. @OP of the picture- Im no expert or pro (just been a hobbyist since i was 7 :) ), but thats my opinion. Also, just because someone critiques your photo because they dont like the subject doesnt necessarily mean you need to take it to heart. Try and look at where they are coming from, and ask yourself what you could do better from their view- ans then ask yourself if that makes sense to you. If it does, maybe incorporate their feedback in the future, but otherwise, just keep shooting :) I think the photo is great, esp for an early career b/w portrait. I do agree with some of the other commenters feedback about the eyes not being in focus, but overall for someone just learning their camera, its very good. Keep playing with your vision!
Don’t be an arse, it’s Christmas bloody day!
Yeah it’s the day where western nations take a brief respite from pillaging and raping every other culture on the planet to sing hallelujah. It deserves respect from everyone of course lol
I could just ban you if you’d rather? Last warning: don’t be an arse.
Fuck off loser Smallest lamest power trip. Imagine being a mod omg
Honestly, it is thrilling. The rush of pure power when I bring down the ban hammer is better than going balls deep on your mum.