Young local actor

While I liked the shot I had to work hard to tell whether it was a furry collar or funny facial hair!

Maybe a colour version would make the distinction clearer?
 
Most of my shots are zoo animals so out of comfort zone offering suggestions here, but I think I prefer the colour version in that the collar and hair are more separate, but the mono makes the skin look a bit better in that it appears a little smoother.

Hope that makes sense and is helpful!
 
Hi phil, I like the image and thank you for sharing. I think, I personally, would prefer him to be facing a little more toward the camera, not much so face-on but 30-45 degrees perhaps.

I'm not sure of the background, particularly since he is wearing a parker coat, which seems a bit weird indoors in what is presumably a studio setup?

I like the lighting (only getting into it myself now) but there are some harsh shadows on the nose (its one of the first places my eyes were drawn too), maybe some softer light would defuse the shadow and help with the skin toning.

Would it be possible to post up the other images from the set? :)
 
Could have done with him turning more slightly towards you as his nose is sticking out beyond his face making it look bigger than it prob is.
 
Bhoy_Whunder said:
Could have done with him turning more slightly towards you as his nose is sticking out beyond his face making it look bigger than it prob is.
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Agree with this - if this is intended as an actor headshot (the kind of thing in Spotlight) then it is too much in profile.

Focus and lighting look good, and there is a good contrast with the choice of clothing. Not sure the parka was the best choice though as the fur around the hood is too distracting. A plain black shirt / top kind of thing tends to be better on these kind of images.

Cheers

Spooks
 
shieldz said:
Would anyone be kind enough to give some honest critique?
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The lighting and the processing is kinda horrible.

The lighting does nothing for him. It doesn't carve out his facial features.

The processing is kind of all grey in the black and white one, there are no deeper areas of blacks caused by the lighting etc. In the colour one his skin tones are ruddy and unretouched.

I'm unsure if you were asked to shoot an 'actors headshot' but this is not one. Actors head shots are shot in particular ways according to casting directors requirements.

Lastly he looks utterly bored. To take a picture of an actor looking utterly bored is really quite an achievement (or they are a terrible actor). Or maybe they were a fantastic actor and trying to look bored. I don't know. I would have gone for facial expressions other than 'bored' personally.

The bottom line is that no actor is going to want shots of themselves looking bored, with all their (teenage?) skin flaws on display and making their nose look kinda lumpy because it's in profile.

Back to the drawing board entirely I fear, starting with the lighting.

ETA: I just want to demonstrate with one of my shots what I mean. It's here: http://charlottemoss.businesscatalyst.com/images/_mg_6933web.jpg
So here I've also got a young man in profile, just like your shot. But I've turned him further away so that I don't get his cheek bisecting his nose which makes his face look fat.
I've also used just a single light source to give him depth under his cheekbones and so forth, which in fact he does not particularly have in person.
The wider crop allows us to see more of his head, because people have backs of heads too.
Shallow depth of field adds fashionable style and the harder light with more contrast allows for a much easier black and white conversion.
It's still not an 'actors headshot' but I think it's more interesting, and to be frank would only take turning some lights off from your setup and posing him differently.
Further to that, turning him 90 degrees towards me produced this: http://charlottemoss.businesscatalyst.com/images/_mg_6913web.jpg which would be much more useful to an actor (although still not really an actors headshot).
 
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Carlh said:
great shot charlotte, quite inspiring, might have a go at something similar like that tonight
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Thanks. :) IIRC it was just a single beauty dish. You could get a similar result with a soft box and no scrim, or even a half closed silver brolly.
 
Thanks for the feedback so far. The shoot wasn't intended as an 'Actors headshot' session. He wanted some for his website/twitter account. He claims to have had a professional set done, and the poses were how the previous photographer had him in. He seemed to have the same expression all the way through the shoot. As for his skin, he suffers from quite bad acne at the moment, and he asked me to remove it in photoshop. I suppose I could have tweaked the overall look of his skin while I was at it.

As for the clothing, I too thought it was a little strange him keeping his coat on. I did eventually manage to coax him out of it as he brought a number of tee-shirts along to change into.

All points made so far have been taken on board and I hope to be able to use the advice next time.
 
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