Senior Boy With Guitar

Not bad, too Wallmart/studio for my liking.
The guy is dressed as a rocker, so should the lighting and background be complimentary to his style. Gels.

If we are going with studio esthetics, then, the guitar is not properly held, nor should the shaft be away from the camera, wrong background, should be solid, maybe the grey and be lit up to separate your subject. Possibly a low Key Lighting could be more effective.

A nice shot, though.

The background is nice, however, because of the colors in the background, our eyes are distracted from the subject to see what the background is like.

Subject could be 5 feet from the background which would blur it and have a possible neat effect.

I did mentioned gels, so, that would be for a white background, sorry about that.
No, I still don't like the way he is holding the guitar and how the shaft is placed away from the camera.

What's the exif, F11 F8 I would use an ap to blur the background and yes, I still think it would look neat.
The background is DISTRACTING the viewer from your subject.

Yes, this site is stiff, take it as a grain of salt, just mere opinions, honesty, and maybe some constructive suggestions.

Cheers

O.k. if a photo sharing reaction is wanted, well, it's a pretty picture.

Hey, Ben.  I for one am really happy to see you posting on here again.  Please keep sharing your wonderful work with us.  There is a lot you could teach all the members here about posing, lighting, business, studio work, etc., etc.  I don't know how long you have been doing photography, but it is obvious to me that you are very meticulous in your work.  You are detail oriented and I don't get the feeling you miss very many glaring details like a background that should be blurry.  The background here is sharp because you wanted it sharp; I think it works well.  Blurry would have lost all the texture and detail that is an integral part of your photographic vision in this image.  If I had a nitpick, it would be the neck of the guitar appearing to grow out of the back of his head.  If you didn't want a critique, consider that a debate for the rest of the forum members that stemmed from your image !  Honestly, you produce consistently wonderful work!  I only wish you would share more of it with us; maybe with some of your own tips and tricks for us to learn by.

As for critique, I do believe that every board here is open for comments and critiques.  The forum marked specifically for critique is for those of us (and you, if you want) that would like to have comments made only by the members of the board that are deemed as the most capable to teach and mentor.  Basically, you know that what you are getting is coming from the most professional and experienced member(s) of the site.  All other areas are open for everyone, so you are likely to get completely irrelevant comments from inexperienced and incapable individuals like myself; these critiques would be more open to your own thoughts and feelings as to what makes your image good or bad (but you could, of course, disagree with the "Pro's" on the other 'critique' forum as well).  Are you accustomed to other forums where there are sections that no one is allowed to critique or provide their own opinions?  I, for one, stay away from places where all you get is lame comments that do nothing for anyone.  I agree with Susie on this one, if you don't want it critiqued, please let us know up front and I'm sure no one will; and you can always disagree or ignore comments that you don't feel are appropriate or in line with your vision.  One suggestion, would you mind sharing with us what your thoughts and feelings are on the image; what do you like/dislike about it yourself?  What were you trying to show us?  Why did you show it to us?  Why did you show it how you did?  Give us some insights, educate us.  I don't mean this to sound demeaning at all, I would truly like to know.  Sometimes, in art galleries and exhibits, the only way to truly understand the artist's work, you need to hear it from the source.  Even poetry and literature can't be given it's true meaning without the writer's own voice and inflections.

Thanks for sharing,

Travis