Don't Mess With Me

[D-B-J]

This is a picture of my friend I took, and I was wondering what everyone thought about it? I personally am quite pleased with it.

Edit: I think photobucket blew out the highlights a tad...


Regards,
Jake

 

[D-B-J]

nothing?

 

[rexbobcat]

I think it would work better as a more low key image.

 

[e.rose]

Doesn't do much for me, sorry. And yes, the highlights are too bright.

 

[D-B-J]

IS there something I could change to make it better?

 

[ManualMode]

Put a shoot-thru or a softbox between you and your light.

 

[PixelRabbit]

To try to save this one I would try converting to B&W and play with the highlights and shadows.
Here is a quick conversion and crop.
The shirt was a big distraction to me, I think this crop works better because my eye doesn't wander much and his eye really pops now.

 

[amolitor]

You've got hard (well, dramatic, at least) light, and a guy looking pretty hard, here. I like hard light for men (up to and including bare flash), it's a masculine and powerful look.

Then you've got him stuck in a soft and comfy looking green T-shirt with some sort of necklace. That's not hard. That's not powerful.

His facial hair is also a little thin, he's going for a grizzled/stubbly look, but he's mostly coming across as boyish and hipsterish. PixelRabbit took it in a good direction - black and white tends to work well for this kind of thing, you get extra visual drama for free and the problematic issues of "soft green t-shirts" are reduced.