The detail is great, pose etc...

I do offer one hint to get of the reflections on your glasses though...
If you tilt your glasses a bit by lifting the the back of the glasses off your ears, the angle will prevent reflections. That area is pretty dark, so it won't be noticable.

Something I did when when I worked for a portrait studio many, many years ago in another chapter of my life.

Don't get me wrong, it is an excellent portrait. I love BW.

Sent from my iPad

I do offer one hint to get of the reflections on your glasses though...
If you tilt your glasses a bit by lifting the the back of the glasses off your ears, the angle will prevent reflections. That area is pretty dark, so it won't be noticable.

Thanks!!!

Much more better indeed, what's your setup here? how are you doing that with the hand? It looks painful!

Oly E-PL1 with 14-42mm stock lens: RAW shooting, Aperture priority, no IS (camera on tripod), saved other 2 images with +1 and -1 EV and composed as a B/W HDR image playing with the values so the effect is not too much "cartoonish"...
BTW I practiced Aikido for three yrs, so wrists are quite used to bending... 

(edited for spelling...)

Photomatix - Essentials.

Much better, excellent effort.

If I may offer, watch for 'hot' spots (blown highlights).  Perhaps it was your HDR merge that created them, or they were just there.  Sometimes blown highlights cannot be avoided, all depends on the intended output and the nature of the composition.

Still, big improvement.


Jason C

If I may offer, watch for 'hot' spots (blown highlights).  Perhaps it was your HDR merge that created them, or they were just there.

Right, I think they were there from the beginning - I have to give more attention to this sort of things!