One of the veteran actors from the local theater community had always been in my head as a great subject for a dramatic portrait shoot. Last week I finally asked him to come over and couldn't have been happier with the results.
He started out very uncomfortable and insecure, but we kept talking until the light and camera disappeared and we started discussing our lives and challenges. Every once in a while I would ask him to point his nos a bit over to the right where the light was just to get a nice look. And as I asked him just to look into the flash, I got this really nice pose, that in the end seemed to me like a man, now in his 60's coming to terms with his own morality. So I played it up a bit by addint a few more light rays and some flying dust as well as really working on the contrast and coloring.
That being said, I think the star of the show is his wonderful beard and expressive face, which I retouched very little. I also tried to move the flash ever so slightly behind his head to give more texture.
