Vietnam portraits - hit or miss?

[rookie2]

Havent been around for a while for a number of reasons but did manage a recent trip to HCMC, Hoi An and Hue in Vietnam where I attempted to get up & personal with a few of the locals.
All taken with 24 -70 on D700 but with my preference being sports photography in the past, I really dont know how well these stack up as portraits.
Any tips criticisms welcome.
cheers
R2

[gstark]

I do like the images, but I'm not at all keen on the treatments. My feeling is that the vignette should generally be used to help focus attention on the subject, but in these images, you already have a reasonably tight crop which achieves this, and the vignette isn't really needed.

And the last seems to have, perhaps induced as a part of your treatment, but more likely because it was shot in the shade (and it's therefore a wb issue) a strong blue cast.

[rookie2]

Thanks Gary..thats exactly the type of feedback needed as this is a whole new field for me.
I will wait for more fb and read up more on how to make these work without the vignetting/lomo effect.
probably should have called them street shots really because all have been cropped from hand held shots.

more cc welcome..and nice to be back.

cheers

R2

[Reschsmooth]

I don't mind the lomo effect in the last but feel, had it been feasible, a shift of the camera to the left would have improved the composition.

Agree with Gary regarding the vignetting and think a touch more contrast would have helped. I love the composition of the 2nd even though they eyes are close to the middle. The way the corners of the hat arc across the diagonal works, in my opinion.

[PiroStitch]

Geez who doesn't smoke in Asia?

Great portraits and all apart from the first are very strong images. Agreed that the vignetting should be removed as it was more distracting.

[phillipb]

I agree about the vignetting but I think the background on the first especially is a bit distracting. I would be inclined to darken the whole lot instead of just the edges.

[zafra52]

I like them, but perhaps the others are right.

[CraigVTR]

I agree with all the above comments about the vignett

[Remorhaz]

I like the second (for me I'd have personally preferred to get the eyes more sharply in focus but that's probably a minor thing in reality). I agree with the comment about the structure of the image with the lines of the hat - very nice.

Agree about the wb shift in #4 and I reckon there's a bit of it in #3 as well - there's also something else odd about #3 (not just the heavy vignette) but I can't quite put my finger on it - it just doesn't look right for me.

[rookie2]

Thanks all for the critiquing - I hope to get some time to work on them again over the weekend.
must admit I went overboard on the vignetting and PP.
I'll take them back to the originals and see what I can come up with.
Got to say taking them and meeting the people, albeit briefly, is still the best part!
cheers
R2

[DJK]

Wow,

Love the photographs (especially the second one), wish I had more time/confidence when talking to the locals to take their portraits when I was there last week. And that I had half the skill in execution to come up with such a wonderful set of photographs.

Sorry, I'm not experienced enough yet to add any constructive criticism...

Cheers,

Dave.