I'm a little off the reservation here

A collegiate flautist came to me to get a publicity shot for his final concert. I worked with him for a while and the poor guy had the most forced facial expressions I've ever worked with. Trying to get a deliverable image, I changed gears big time and tried to go with something where he didn't feel like he had to interact directly with the camera. When I pitched a film noir-looking shot to him, he smiled, so I figured that was the idea to go with. That being said, it doesn't look anything like my normal work so I'm not sure what to think of it.

What do you guys think?

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/243X​gWU

I think it works.

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Absolutely love it. . Extremely unique and effective.

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Dude, make it BW and let the blacks be BLACK. Then send me a beer.

Looks very good!

olafs osh wrote in post #18584397
Dude, make it BW and let the blacks be BLACK. Then send me a beer.

I just tried that on my phone because I was curious. It takes a good photo and makes it outstanding.

In my initial editing of this, I tried desaturating it and felt that the warmth of the skin tones is required.

williaty wrote in post #18584778
In my initial editing of this, I tried desaturating it and felt that the warmth of the skin tones is required.

Desaturating is a thing you use rarely and carefully :]

I concur with Olafs.

Great image by the way, and thanks for the background to it.

Hope you don't mind, I'll delete if you wish...

A LR edit only adjusting the B/W sliders