I'm somewhat new to photography and just want some feedback

This is a photo I took of my younger brother. I saw a photo similar to this in a magazine and I was trying to mimic the look. I'm posting it just to get some feedback from anyone but especially people who know more about photography than I do. Let me know what you think.

Oh and for what its worth, I had to reduce the quality of the jpg to around 75% to meet the size requirements for attaching a photo.

HOSTED PHOTO
please log in to view hosted photos in full size.

Interesting technique.
But you really need a port of at least several before meaningful comments can be given.

what lighting did you use?

The highlights are too hot. I think some side lighting could have been more dramatic.

Like I said, I'm new to photography, I'm a graphic design major at Louisiana Tech University and I just finished a photo class but we didn't deal with flash at all so I may not be saying this right but I just had an external flash setup on my camera and it was facing directly at the model.

I was trying to push the highlights to the max when I was editing and I agree I pushed them a little too far probably. I also agree with the side lighting suggestion, I'll have to see if a can't set up a similar shot that in mind.

ISO 400 50mm f/2.5 1/60sec

I would like to to see a shot of the technique you're trying to mimic. The face is blown out, but that may be what you're after too. There are some hi key photo techniques that are creating similar results.

I'll see if I can atleast find a similar photo to the one I'm trying to mimic, but I agree the face is blown out in places and technically that's incorrect/bad but as an effect or style do you still get too caught up in the fact that it's incorrect or is the overall look of the photo "enjoyable" enough to look past the rule breaking?

The effect I was after I similar to (but not exactly like) this photo...

HOSTED PHOTO
please log in to view hosted photos in full size.

Couple of suggestions: 1. Get rid of the blown out look on the face, I like the sample you provided to mimic, looks more natural. 2. Change your angle of attack. Your shot is pretty straight on and your subject's head is more tilted back than down. I'd have him tilt his head slightly down like the sample. Don't over tilt down or you get some undesirable shadowing.

The shot you are trying to mimic has the flash shooting down from a higher position as well which would mean having to get the flash off the camera.