Please critique these portraits

[tachiKC]

I did these for a class and while I got the critique of my teacher, a professional, as well as my classmates, I would like other photographers to critique them as well. The assignment was to take and develop portraits in black and white while using light in an interesting way. Note that I cropped and re sized them, as well as added borders, after I uploaded them to my computer.

Comments are posted below the pictures. Any and all critiques are welcome. Thank you.


The shadow of his nose should be connected with the shadows of his lips and side, but all in all I like it. This one got an A-.


I did not use a small enough stop for this one and as such not everyone is in focus. This one got a B.

[jetrim]

The first shot is well done. For a slightly modified Rembrandt lighting configuration, it looks good, but I agree with what you posted, the key light could have been placed a bit higher and slightly further back. Interesting that you chose not to use a reflector for fill.

I think the "B" was a bit generous on your instructor's part for this second shot as only 25% of your intended subject is in focus, so unless the intent was to single out the guy w/ the hood, that's a huge technical flaw. Also not particularly crazy about the composition. If the faces were bigger and clearer, I'd be willing to cut some slack as you're trying to fill the frame, but this setup looks more crowded than artistic. Very nice use of the broad lighting technique though, and exposure appears to be spot-on.

[tachiKC]

Thanks for the critique.

In some of my other shots of this subject I did actually use a reflector, but I found that the dynamic lighting on the shots w/o a reflector to be more interesting.

And a lot of the B was for effort and the fact that this is my first time doing it. He teaches both beginner and intermediate portraiture and said that if this was in his intermediate class I would probably have gotten a D lol.

Any suggestions on how I could improve shots like that with multiple people, because I want to redo this picture using what I have learned. Different placing of the subjects? Lightning? My teacher only wrote how I could improve it technically and not artistically.

Thanks again.