My cousin

[Tito948]

Here's a portrait shot of my cousin. He's a part time model/actor. He was the perfect candidate for me
to learn a little something on. He actually liked the photo's I took. So did I. What you guys think...?

http://home.nyc.rr.com/thebrooklynyard/my_cousin.jpg
Shot in RAW mode with a little tweaking here and there.
I'm still learning how to view the Exif data so I can use the same settings again.

Tito

[cityboy_ca]

I would use fill flash to bring out the face a bit more and put highlights in the eyes. In B & W photography you should have a full range of grays, from black to white.

The composition is good, though I'd crop or clone out that little distraction in the lower right corner.

[stopbath]

The photo has a lot of energy. Seems like this guy would not sit too long before bouncing up and doing something else... Composition is nice, lighting is good except that there is shadows in the eyes. A low power fill flash might help here (as suggested previously) or a reflector.

Also the picture is a tad dark. Lots of detail is in the black shirt, but still a little more detail could be used. His face is a bit dark (his teeth are grey...)

The background could use a little cleaning up. There is some scuff marks that are a little distracting.

[Tito948]

Thank you very much for your comments. They're very important to me. It's exactly what I need to get it right.
Don't mind my dirty wall. It was the only white wall in my house. All in all it was fun for me and I hope I learned
a little something.

Will a Canon 550 EX flash solve the shadow problem? is this a kind of fill flash?

Will the above flash be good enough for portraits or headshots?...
or will I need more than that?

Again, thanks for the comments
Tito

[Meerkat17]

http://www.btinternet.com/~David.Lewins/photos/my_cousin2.jpg

Not as good and impressive as scotgasch did on the other portrait work but here's a retouched version.

Really like the natural pose.

[gail]

Hey, pretty impressive to me I think you did great! Job. How do you all do this it looks really professorial.

[Tito948]

Holy sh*t! Nice job on that picture. I got to learn how to do that.

Tito

[TeraGram93013]

Will a Canon 550 EX flash solve the shadow problem? is this a kind of fill flash?

You could use a 550ex. For close-up portrait work you'd want a diffuser (um ... that may not be the right word for this object, it is a plastic box which fits over the flash portion) so the light isn't overly harsh.