Portrait of my grandpa

Its been a while since I've shared on here, so I thought I share a recent portrait I shot of my grandpa. I've been working on building up my portrait portfolio to start marketing to editorial clients and this is my new favorite shot.

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com/​photos/ac_ultra/119770​36174/

I really like it!

Nice, he looks great!
You want any CC?

I like it a lot too. It is a great shot, and portfolio-worthy.

Photo-wise, I would change very little. If I had to nitpick:
- Maybe bring down the luminance of the red chair back by half a stop or so. It's really bright.
- Catch light in one eye but not the other, is a little odd. Clone one in or clone one out.
- I'd like to see an edit with a bit more vignette - just to compare. What you have is probably just right.
- I might like to see a version with a very subtle/soft kicker light, opposite the main light. Might not need it, but I'd have to compare.

Styling-wise, the coat doesn't seem to fit very well, it's almost swallowing him. Maybe it's an older coat and he's lost a lot of mass/weight?

A recessed front diffuser would have worked well with this, feathering across him a bit, decreasing exposure on the back, camera left part of the chair, increasing it a bit on the opposite arm. I wouldn't change anything with him aside from fixing the stray hair on his left side.

Nathan - Yea I went back and forth on bringing down the brightness of the red, but ultimately left it. As far as the catchlight, I didn't notice it before but now can't stop looking at it!And yea, he recently lost some weight so his suits don't fit as well as they used to.

Windpig - agreed.

quick re-edit:

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com/​photos/ac_ultra/119738​09263/

Hmm. Did you bring down the red globally, or just adjust on the chair? The skin tones look a little different, may just be my imagination.

Yea I did a real quick edit in lightroom and brought down the luminance of the reds which did affect his face, but not enough for me to hate it.

It is a great shot . Almost everything is right except for the composition and the angle .It would be so powerful if he was standing from the same angle but sitting doesn't look right .Maybe you should adjust the crop a little bit .Great lighting !

anthonycruzphoto wrote in post #16609255
Yea I did a real quick edit in lightroom and brought down the luminance of the reds which did affect his face, but not enough for me to hate it.

You could use the adjustment brush to brush it onto just the hottest parts of the chair, instead of globally. Might start with about -10 highlights, and maybe -3 saturation, with a lot of flow onto the top of the chair back and a lower flow going onto other hot parts of the chair. If you keep it on the chair, you're not draining any color out of his face like you would with a global adjustment in the HSL pane.

I like the re-edit better that the original.

I like the edit a little bit more too.... great image

Excellent photo. I prefer the re-edit. Your grandfather looks very dignified and elegant.

Great use of lighting. Really sets the mood on the photograph.