Portrait Critiques

I like them.

On #1, that huge hotspot on his forehead is very distracting. If you shot raw, you might have enough detail in the original file to pull down the exposure locally, you'll probably need to introduce some color as well since simply reducing the exposure will make it gray and lifeless. Do a little on that hot stripe on the nose, too.

How about the mark on his right (camera-left) cheek? If it's a smudge on the sunglasses, clone it out. If it's a mole, ask the client if he wants it removed, then make sure to remove it in both shots or in neither. The reflection of his arm in the sunglasses is slightly distracting, it would be very easy to remove it with content-aware fill.

I like em. Agree about the spot on #1. What is the use for these photos? The look like marketing photos.

Generally speaking, having a subject looking up at the camera like #2 is seen as putting them in a subordinate role.

Number one is nice, but as said you might want to try to bring back some detail in his forehead.

I agree with previous suggestions. I like the amount of shadow you got in #1, it fits his look. #2 I personally don't usually like this angle but I think you/he pulled it off nicely

I find the half on sunglass look hard to pull off and the first pulls it off better then I have. He looks kinda uninterested. Was is marketing photos? Is he a DJ?

thank you all for your suggestions. i will try to bring back detail in his forehead and finish pp the suggestions.

yes these were photos i did for a friend cause i had never done speedlite headshots before. he uses them for his instagram and marketing materials. he is a DJ based out of NY.

I like shallow DOF portraits.

that said, the shallow dof works in the second when his body just blends away. in the first it doesn't work so well on the white, it makes the outline of his head and body look soft, almost like you did a terrible job replacing the background. :P

when working with a solid background just stop it down, preferably to f8 to make the whole head sharp.

i see what you are saying. i think that was more PP based. the shots were taken against a very small wall that actually had 2 lightswitches on each of his sides. so between the cloning out and turning the wall white to look like seamless. it got that way. thanks for the suggestion.

I just wonder, why nobody haven't mentioned this...

A huge sloppy dark halo all around the face in the first image. I presume it was done by creating the mask for bringing up the background to complete white and done it without even trying to be precise. Sorry, man, but that's is the biggest burn for my eyes. Just sloppy.

Srsly, I don't want to be rude, but you have to now that, since it's C&C and all. Second image is better in this matter, but there's also an unknown white blob on the left side of his forehead.