Portrat of a Young Man in Glasses

Benji is right about the glasses.  However, it's just not always practical.  Few subjects are going to get open frames for a wedding shoot and most of practice on family and friends and in often less than formal circumstances.  So, it still helps to be able to work around these problems.

Most of who where glasses are aware of the way that they make us look and others who see us every day account for these visual effects.  Keeping the frames up where they belong is good start and something that you missed.  Keeping the frames higher also tends to cause more glare problems and you have to be careful where you place your lights.  Often a slight movement of the head can do wonders to cause or prevent this glare.

To me, it looks like your main light was both too high and too close to directly over the camera.  Moving the light lower and to camera left will improve the light on his face by moving it into more of a short pattern.  Do not place the light so low that the shadows from his lenses cut into his eyes.

The only other thing to mention is that I would have pulled his shirt down from the back in order to reduce the wrinkles behind his neck.  Also, I like the effect of your background light.

One last thing . . . I would suggest as little bit of a smile next time!

Ed

I must apologize because at this time my entire system is out of calibration and is beyond repair!  New gear coming soon.   The image on my screen was too dark to assess so I put in Photoshop- the attached image looks fine on my screen but will probably be washed out on everyone else’s monitor!  I attached it to illustrate a few points, however, so please excuse the poor quality.

The attempt to correct reflections in the eyeglasses was a brave one but has resulted in totally bad lighting.  The main light is with out a doubt way too high.  The shadow detail in the eyes is almost all gone and the shadows from the eyeglass frames are entirely distracting and cause all the more attention to go to the eyeglasses.  The main light is also too flat- it is kind of a butterfly lighting that is not at all flattering to the subject.  The lighting on the face is very uneven from top to bottom because of the extreme height of the main light and the lack of lateral movement and feathering.

The best way to treat eyeglasses is to have blank frames as mentioned.  Sometimes, in an emergency deadline situation, this can be remedied by tilting the lenses down a bit but here they are placed too low on the nose, perhaps in an attempt to tip them down. 
There is also a remaining reflection at the bottom of the glasses which indicates that the fill light was way too low.  Having a high fill source such as a ceiling bounce array or a soft box mounted where the back wall and ceiling converge- behind the camera, will eliminate reflections from the fill light.

The background has distracting highlights on it.  Placing the background light just so it imparts a subtle glow- enough to give separation and some color or tonal mass is less distracting.

The original crop is too loose- the attached version shows a better composition. 

The mole between the eyes-???   This is always controversial.  Does the client want it left as is or want to have it retouched?  If he intends having it removed (surgically) in the future- he may wish to have it removed from his image.  Because of its central position between the eyes it really calls attention to itself- lightening it may be a good compromise. 

Expression?  A serious look is fine- in a complete sitting some smiles should be included unless there are dental issues that are best not shown.  As Cindy pointed out the expression is kind of lackluster- sometimes we have to draw the expression out of the subject.

The camera is slightly low and this is not a real full face because the ears show as  if the were different sizes.

In general- I think the image is slightly below professional standards, mainly because of the lighting and lack of attention to such things as clothing wrinkles.  Good attempt- no cigar.

Ed Shapiro