Critique Two recent shots for critique

First is a great portrait (to my tastes). The second looks a bit on the soft side and is, to me, awkwardly composed in that there is a bit of dead space on the right-hand side. The head (the focus of interest) is in the centre and the shoulder is on the left hand side, but there is nothing to balance it on the right.
 
Both a bit underexposed and a touch flat, but I do like the engagement in #1. #2 is just a bit soft, but, hey,. its a baby and they're cute whatever you do. :)
 
Number one is the better for me. Great potential there with some careful editing. As Dean said, a real connection with the subject.

Maybe boost the contrast and alter the colour Chanel's in your mono conversion?
 
Thanks everyone for taking the time to comment.

I'll start with the 2nd one, of baby Ethan. This is actually a very tight crop on a much wider photograph my girlfriend took of her friends kid. To be honest it definitely is a little bit soft. I wasn't there so I'm not sure if the child was moving around or if focus is slightly off or whatever. I'll hold my hands up and say it's quite a crude bit of editing (fair point also about the 'imbalanced' crop) however the child's parents love them so I suppose thats the main thing. Here is a colour version as someone was asking for...



The first image is a very good school friend of mine who came to visit yesterday. I feel like there is an intensity in his gaze but I would agree with the comments about it looking a bit flat. I'll have a play with it now and increase exposure slightly and follow Shaheed's advice too. Any more opinions are much appreciated...
 
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Any opinions on this edit? Boosted contrast and exposure and did a little bit of burning on his face. I have something in the back of my head telling me I read something once that said high contrast suited feminine faces better (basically the entire cosmetics industry is based around this premise...) and that low contrast suited male faces better. That was the reason for intentionally dropping contrast on the first edit. Does this one look any less flat?

 
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Thank you Andrew. Can I ask very delicate tinkering with what exactly? I am always trying to learn.

Thanks again for the responses
 
Okay, having downloaded the first image to tweak it I can see the problem - you've missed focus on the eyes. You're going to struggle to make that really come alive without that.
 
Hi Gary

I have done a quick edit of my own, basically added a contrast curve and upped the levels slightly then dodged around the eyeballs and whites and burnt back the cheeks and neck , added a colour tint with the colour balance just to give it a little kick. All to my own taste of course so maybe not anyone elses !

There is however a focus issue and would really have need more depth of field across the face including the eyes which is always a difficult one to get spot on but personally i would zoom and check the eye focus is bang on for these type of shots.

edited.jpg
 
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