Thanks, Vlatko! Appreciate your feedback! Besides his eyes, his hand was real important for me to get right. Actually i darkened his hand on purpose because it thought it was too bright and it was really bugging me. so what i did was i ran this thru KPT gradient filter. it darkened his hand and i liked how it affected the rest of the image. sorry...i totally forgot i did & neglected to mention it when i was telling my postwork. i loved it b/w and i thought it looked fantastic! almost kept it b/w. i let kemal decide on the toning...which version he preferred. ok, here it it brightened with some contrast added. i also cloned out that light as someone suggested i try to see how it looked. he didn't mention cloning that light part around the ear, but with the rest of it cloned, i figured i should clone it too. keep in mind i just woke up and just finishing first cup of coffee. i know that cloning job is not the best...this is just to see what you guys think. you like it better brightened? oh, kemal has lots of earring studs...a PC, a shuttle we got a the Kennedy Space Center, a rhino...well, lots more! :) thanks again, Vlatko!