Kyle
This is an outstanding portrait. The placement of the subject well off center and cropped to about three fourths of the face gives a very natural and intimate feeling to the image. The fact that he is looking down and out of the frame has the impression of a very sensitive young man. The strong window lighting from the left almost blows out the texture of the skin but also adds to the warm yet moody environment.
I feel that black and white was a good choice for this portrait.
A soft focus background with texture is very desirable in this scene. However I would make one suggestion. In the background there is a white line that appears to be touching his cheek, this is a little distracting. Perhaps the photographer would care to eliminate some of this using computer software.
Click on Image 
Marked Up 
Modified 
January 1st, 2008 at 1:50 pm
I shot this picture of my son on Christmas day at a family gathering. He was depressed, as he often is, about not having a girlfriend
The picture is side lit from a picture window with a gauze curtain. I used a Photoshop levels adjustment layer to increase the highlights so the light went from almost pure white on the left, to black on the right, to enhance the mood of my subject. The Imagenomic Noise Filter smoothed the skin and clothes to further add to the special mood of the moment.
January 1st, 2008 at 2:13 pm
You have captured the feelings of your son with both his image and your manipulation of the image. Thank you for the submission.