Love this. Great exposure and a really deep black. The detail to the gentleman is great and he looks very charismatic.

Just wonderful Mark. I can almost read every story from this man's long life in the imperfections of his face. The sharp features against the completely nebulous blur of the background are perfect. Can you share a little bit about him?

This man is a homeless individual who I often see in the Union Square area of San Francisco. His eyes are completely mesmerizing, as they are a pale green. I have talked with him, but he is very quiet, very shy. He tends to not gather with the other homeless men and women there, but remains to himself.

This is a fine portrait Mark. I'm also a big fan of portraiture and people-photography in general.

Is the man on a separate layer from the out-of-focus background? If so, it's well done.

I suggest masking or layering because the highlights along the side of the man's face would have to come from bright areas in the camera's line of sight, yet we don't see those bright areas behind the man. Also, you have enough depth of field to carry detail in the man front to back, yet nothing else is even slightly in focus, and there is no indication in the background that some things are closer to the camera than any others.

If I'm right, then kudos for extending the man's right eyebrow into the out-of-focus area.

I was just marveling at the eyebrow myself King. :-)

After looking some more, I'm convinced that the background is masked (or some such). Want to talk about it? Compare masking techniques?

Doesn't matter. Superior work here.

King, I emailed Mark about this image because I thought I recognized what you did about the masking/background. I don't like banding that is caused by a gaussian blur or something similar, so I suggested adding a film grain and then fading it afterwards. This gets rid of the banding with only a slightly discernible grain, which to me is more appealing than the bands.

King, this image is from a period last year when I was really enamored with Annie Leibovitz's image of Michael Jordan, a low contrast image of him against a black background. I did about four attempts at her wonderful image. This man was indeed layered using a quick mask.

Tracy has been kind and patient enough to offer me some great tutoring on the PS process. Like I've said in the past, I'm only a novice at the program so her help has been great. I have someone local who uses and is a master of PS, Chris my pro photographer friend, but he's not the most patient teacher. When you're here next weekend, we can yak about what processes we use. BTW, send me an email about your flight schedule.

Tracy is great, isn't she? Annie Leibovitz is great, too. So are you.

You'll hear from me via e-mail.

Both are intelligent and articulate. Have had the pleasure of meeting and speaking with one. Hope to meet the other sometime soon.

*blush*

Ten years ago my brother tried to teach me photoshop and we got into a few scraps because I didn't pick it up fast enough for his liking before I just tried learning it on my own. It can have a huge learning curve to begin with but one thing to keep in mind is that there are always many ways to get the same desired results.

Dennis is jealous about Argentina and I am jealous I won't be in San Francisco with you three crazy gentlemen.