Black and White Studio-Style Portraits

This may not be an obvious choice for many people rating photos, but before you do, read the brief and read it well. Were it not for some very strong competition this photo would have been placing in the top ten.

Thought has been given to the lighting prior to taking this photo, something that cannot always be said of some entered.

On Photocrowd I often see photos of older people that have had lots of post production work, high HDR, and to be honest I'm getting tired of it.

This is the opposite, a fantastic image that has been nicely lit, without too much post production applied. It's a refreshing change to see on this site.

You have perfectly shown what can be achieved with a single light setup, too many people rush to add as many light sources as possible without understanding what can be achieved with just one.

This can be held up as a great example to others

As soon as I saw this photo in the competition I felt that it would place well against the competition,

I love the way the mask of dark tones around the eyes draw you in even more to focus on the eyes.

I saw this image upload on my feed, showed it to my wife, saying "it's not in my competition but look at this!" only to realise that it had been entered. It's really good to see some good high key images amongst this competition.

A fantastic photo, well lit, thought has obviously gone into the technical lighting of this stunning piece of art,

The crop and use of negative space really draws the viewer into the image, a very powerful statement. I just love it.