Close tight portrait

[Anbesol]

Man, self-portraits really are the hardest kind .

I have mixed thoughts on this one, I was shooting for the absolute tightest framing possible.

C+c appreciated.

[jetrim]

Framing (composition) is great. DoF may be just a smidgen too tight as the lower part of the nose is forward of the plane of focus. I think if you spent a few minutes doing some basic enhancements, this would be a keeper though. I did a quick edit and came up with this:
Saturate irises 40%
burn edges of irises 20%
clean up catchlights w/ white paintbrush 7px 75% hard
desautrate whites of eyes 30%
healing brush as neeed
Sharpen eyes/nose/chin 20%

[Anbesol]

Wow, awesome, thanks. What did you do to the flesh tones? The skin color looks slightly better in yours.

[Anbesol]

Redone with a few edits, improvement? Is the skin too bright? Catchlights believable? Any other edits? C+C appreciated.

[Overbeyond]

To be honest, I think both edits have done the eyes no favours especially the catchlights; they only succeed making things scary. I thought the catchlights were adequate in the original. Everything else, in the edits, is fine though imo.

[jetrim]

Skin isn't too bright, and catchlights are fine (looks like a 5' octabox, which it totally believable given the highlight/shadow ratio and soft transitions). May actually prefer your less saturated irises. Only thing else I'd suggest is a few dabs with the healing brush as needed on the forehead and maybe desaturate the blood vessels in the whites of the eyes. Other than that, GREAT JOB!

[JETA]

I like the crop you have here. I'm in favor of jetrim's edit and think he was spot on. For me the original was missing something in the eyes.

[Greg McCary]

I have to agree with Tom, the eyes in the first were fine. The other improvements helped the shot.

[draymorton]

Excellent portrait. I like the original best.

I don't think enough has been done in any of the edits to fix the skin tone. But this shot has a lot of potential.

[BettyG]

Just a quick trip to LRoom ;-) I'm not into portrait fixing in Photoshop...but I kind of think this tone has an edgier look to it....Def makes your eyes pop IMHO. Could use some evening out of the skin tone...but like I said, me no savvy PShop LOL.

[Anbesol]

Thank you everyone for all the feedback!

I had the same initial reaction to the catchlights in Jets edit, but honestly it sort of grew on me and I like it at this point. I will keep working on flesh tones to find that perfect balance.

Another question thats sort of a bit of a conundrum the spot above my right eyebrow looks almost like a blemish - but its actually a freckle. Has some prominence to the skin in the image. It does however, draw attention. To remove, or not to remove, that is the question!

Anyway thank you everybody your feedback has been very helpful!