Jim

Paul your exposure is excellent with a nice tonal range. However the fact that his hands dominate the foreground but are out of focus at f2 detract from the final picture. From the top of his upturned collar down to the bottom of the back of his right hand appears to be solarized. Something similar has occurred in the corner of the room behind him. Is this a scanning fault?
I do like your photo and look forward to seeing more examples of your work.
Remember this is just one man's opinion.

Cheers
TEX

No sweat Tex and a big thanks for the critique. Portraits aren't my thing (I'm mostly a landscaper) but I want to get better. I did try toning the hands down a bit in CS3 but I couldn't get it to look right. I know what you mean about the 'solarisation' look. I'll check out the neg but it might be just the way fleece looks on film. Good spot, though. I can't remember whether I scanned this one or I had it done at the shop. I use an Epson V750 (without the liquid gel thingy) and I'm only just getting to grips with it.
Anyway, hope to post more soon. All the best. Paul.

The solarisation effect not obvious on my monitor.
The slightly out of focus hands in the foreground concentrate the viewers attention on the facial expression which is the purpose of the shot? Personally I would be inclined to burn down to black the frame in the top left hand corner. Otherwise seems an interesting portrait to me.
Regards,
John.

Hi John, glad you like it. I'll have a go at blackening out the frame as suggested. As I said to Tex, I'm not sure about the solarisation (haven't had chance to check the neg / scan yet) but I was reasonably pleased the way the shot came out. Alas the M6 is no more, so I'll have to have a go with the 'new' F100!
All the best, Paul.