For me some portraits just work really well in Black and White, yes they work in Colour as well, but the B&W just gives the image a bit more of an edge especially when the person has an interesting face, and I dare say it are getting that bit older and the face starts to show the normal signs of ageing and a little weather beaten. You can help to define the character of the face with B&W get some nice shadows and highlights to help make the image stand out. This is my brother in law, who never refuses a chance to be in front of the camera, and since he received a pipe for Christmas I thought it would make for a good image of him sitting in his winged back chair, holding his pipe. There was a long tall light in the corner which through a small amount of light on the right side and I had my son stand on the left with my Pixapro flash and a small dome diff-user on it, the flash was set at about 1/8 power and bouncing the light of the ceiling to give a more even spread but also create some nice shadows, and highlights. The flash was remotely fired.
Equipment Used
Nikon D700
Sigma 105mm Macro Lens
Flash Gun Pixapro Li-ion 580 ITTL, with the Pixapro 433MHZ Pro Speedlite Receiver
Pixapro 433 MHZ Pro AC Wireless16 Channel Radio Flash Trigger
A domed diffuser
Camera Settings
Speed 1/250
Aperture F3.2
Nice images. I particularly like the first one