Cold, harsh self-portrait: split-toning & sharpening

[ludwigschubert]

I decided to do a different kind of self-portrait for personal use.
Boy did I have fun with the ashes and the bad boy look



You can see the "Large Size" here, which shows the texture way better, imho.

I basically have two questions (apart from "How do you like it", of course):

1. Do you think the split toning works here? I wanted the shadows to be warm and the lit side of my face to be cool. Maybe it's too subtle to really work? Or I should just stick to B/W?
2. To me the image seems somewhat over-sharpened, especially around the hair... when it isn't. Just standard sharpening (25) in Lightroom. But when I ditch the sharpening completely the texture on my face looks flat. Any ideas why the hair looks so... harsh? Or maybe I'm just too anal here and it's quite OK?

This is the first image I have put up for critique, so please tell me if I did something wrong, put it in the wrong category, etc.

Regards,
Ludwig

[Murtasma]

Nice idea, I like the ash on the face. I don't really think the split toning adds anything to the image and probably does more damage then good. I think a high contrast black and white picture would look totally awesome.

How was this lit? It looks like a single light source on the right side. Was this light diffused? A change in your lighting configuration can add more depth and reveal more details of the ash on your face. You may have to experiment with more ash on the face or something else besides ash but looks similar, maybe some toothpaste with some ink in it to darken it and make it appear like ash. What you want are features on the face that stick out then position your light to create little shadows from the raised areas of the makeup. You may need to use some fill on the other side of the face depending on where the light is. A art core foam board should do an excellent job of fill or even better something silver since it will have higher contrast which I think is what your going for. The hair looks a little over sharpened to me but still acceptable.

Nice work thanks for sharing ludwig

[ludwigschubert]

Murtasma, thank you for your thorough critique!

You might be right about the toning - I tried a B/W, though I'm not sure which I like better right now. I kept the split toning for printing, which was on a metallic paper, and I think I like the look But on screen, it doesn't seem as "vivid" anyway, so the B/W seems like a more solid choice.



Good thinking on the light, yes it had a single softbox to my left (right in the image).
Now you tell me about it it's so logical that for the texture to come alive it might not have been the smartest move to blast it with a softbox. I guess I need to think more about what I want to achieve with my lighting.

Thank you for your time!
Ludwig

[ajm057]

I prefer your B&W, but it would be even better with your right eye in colour.

[xxpinballxx]

Nice shot! Cool idea. I really think the split toning idea is a good one.
I would add a gradiant layer going from warm to cold and lower the opacity way down....just to give a hint more temp change. I think the idea of it would work well but just not enough of it.
The hair does seem a bit too sharp for the rest of the image.
You can always duplicate it and sharper the bottom image for the face and the top for the hair and then just erase the top layer where the face is and it will come through leaving the hair a bit softer. Alot of times those loose stray hairs seem to sharpen beyond control with the tiniest bit of sharpening.
Very nice ffect over all though.....