"Spectacular!"

"I boosted the exposure just a bit in photoshop, and photoshopped out a few sources of light that were elsewhere in the room and were creating distractions."

"There is of course only one light source (the fire), which acts as the key light, and creates the beautiful geometry caused by the light and shadow around the edge of the subject's face, jaw, and neck."

"Requirement 2: Indoor Natural Light Portrait This was a challenging shot that was also a lot of fun. I knew the lighting would be hopelessly low, so I did everything in my power to get lots of light to the sensor. ISO is 1600, and the focal length is the shortest possible to get the largest possible f/stop, and the shutter is 1/30, which is longer than I should have hand held for. Nevertheless, the image is quite dramatic."

"Requirement 3: Outdoor Available Light Portrait The overcast day brought nice diffuse light that allows the ambient to act as both key light from the left and generally act as fill as well from all around. In order to avoid a sense of crowding and distortion, I used a longish focal length. I purposely selected the smallest possible aperture to get a small depth of field to isolate the subject."