Hello... (post # 13 :)
All meet Matt... My wife's little brother is applying to drama schools and asked me to take a photograph of him. I attached the original photo and something I did in Photoshop.
I had no studio lights but I bounced the flush off the ceiling and added some more light in Photoshop. Cleaned up the skin a bit.
Any and all of your comments are most welcome.
...
btw, after reading all the tutorials I find myself still lost in the deep sea of Photoshop.. all though now I can almost predict the waves....
I thank you all for bringing a bit of clarity into my life:)

!U

Disclaimer: I don't do this professionally and seldom do this kind of thing for friends. Opinions on BW are all over the map, so take my .02 with a grain of salt...
* I thought you did a nice job on touching up the face
* I've not a clue on lighting; looks OK to me
* Background is OK (not distracting) and I like the artistic crop
* I would have preferred a shirt w/o a pattern (it's kind of busy; a bit distracting)
* Would have preferred more contrast between skin tone and clothing and facial details more in focus

See attached for my stab at improving it. Key technique: Airbrushing white or black onto the adjustment layer masks and the layer mask of the top layer for selective application of the various effects.

Hopefully the layer names in the Layers Palette snapshot will enable you to figure out how I got from yours to mine.

Don't hesitate to ask if I left anything out or you need clarification on any of this.

Good luck on your project.

~Danny~

Wild.. I guess I had a good starting point.. Nice work...
Let's see now how confused I get doing this... :)

In my experiance with this kind of work, this is not good.

He is trying to "sell" himself. You have cut off his ear, why? Does it stick out like a open car door????? I have never done or been asked to do any of this kind of work where we cut off part of the persons head.

Your retouching of his face is too heavy, again he is trying to sell himself, when (if) he gets a face to face interview he had better look real close to his photograph. If they want to clean up his face for a stage role or something, then they will do that but they need to know what they are starting with.

Just my experiance.......

Mike

I have to agree with Mike. My son was into acting for a few years and actually had headshots done by a professional photographer. Below are some web sites. One is an article about headshots and the other is a New York web site with some examples. Do a search on the web and you will find tons of examples. HOpe this helps. Vicki

http://www.actorswebsource.com/articles/tips_camera_acting8.php?l=48

http://www.new-york-headshots.com/headshots/actorheadshots.htm

Ya.. That ear just wouldn't fit in...
Thank you for your honest opinion. As always I'm glad I asked here first :)