Saving the shoot

[DougAxford]

I have to admit, if a client was telling me to show the eyes, then that sure put a whole new light on the picture. In that case, you are trying to please the client, not the speaker. As long as they were thrilled, all is well.

[Jules_Selmes]

I feel I need to chip in. I agree with the fact that the final pic seems over cooked but stand corrected when told the final image looked as I would have preferred. That is a gentle reminder that we shoot and process for the end game and judging an image only part way down the workflow is flawed.

No one mentioned that the shadow under his lip and neck looks all wrong in the final image. I know that digital processing is also part of our workflows now but there is a tendancy to dive into the digital rescue route because we can but the resulting image looks wierd. That lighting situation looks unreal verging on HDR. If light was bouncing off a white wall or fill-in flash was used filling in the eyes it would also happen to the rest of the face too.
Be a photographer, working with lighting. When you shoot; creating it or as in this case, capturing what is already exsisting in a way that you can use when processing. But don't switch totally to a computer technition when you work on the images.
This is not a critisim of a job well done in very difficult conditions. Do the great job you are doing but do it over more of the image. It is just a suggestion to take time to "see the wood for the trees..."