1920's Gangster Portrait

[bbtom10]

Hi,

I hadn't set out to capture portraits, it was just a friends party and I took my camera along with me (also, see my entry in the 'couple's' photo assignment this week for another from this set, or my FlickR).

I was flicking through and thought this one had some potential, so I converted to B&W, added some sharpening, noise reduction, softened the skin a bit and did some dodging and burning to darken the background and make sure the face wasn't too bright, and I am really proud of the final image. I was going for the 1920's gangster look - perhaps I should've added a bit of artificial grain - I used LR3.

So, what else could I have done in Post to bring this out even more? I was very limited in terms of what i could do when capturing the shot, and I am aware that perhaps lighting wasn't great (he has a black shiny hat on with a white stripe which you can't make out because it is all clipped(?)).

Appreciate comments on that and general composition, feelings, pose (it was a candid capture though) etc.



Thanks in advance (TIA!)
Tom

[gturner]

If you have the raw file I would use the exposure brush to lift the hat, it is hidden completely and it looks more like a head has been chopped off.

Have you applied a lot of noise reduction? It looks too smooth, there is no life in his skin.

Cool idea overall.