Practice for Final

So I am finally figuring out what I want to do exactly for my final project over here in Italy. I have really been wanting to use my flashes (I lugged stands and umbrellas and other crap over here). I am going to do commercial/semi theatrical scenes incorporating the person and their environment (I want Siena to permeate through somehow). Since it is a book I have been playing with the idea to have separate images, but at the same time have two images, or multiple images interact with each other in the sense that one person in one image is looking at another person in another image, across the page, or on the page next to it, or have someone looking around a corner which is the edge of the page - some sort of interaction or interplay between the individual images. At the same time, they could each be stand alone. I'll see.

I was able to practice with a friend of mine Frank, who is from north Jersey. He is living with me and my host family while we are studying abroad. Turns out he was pretty photogenic and I was able to get some good practice using my flashes. I am looking forward to taking more pictures of some other people here in Siena, and will upload those when I get them done. I am going to do some planning ahead so I can setup the shot and plan some of the pages ahead of time. I felt that commercial/fashion/semi-theatrical with speedlights suits because Italy is of course a country of fashion, and so in that sense this project would pertain to Italy.

Here are some examples with the flash. These are just with one flash, but I plan to use two for my final in order to incorporate environment and person. These are solely practice shots. OH and the reason we put sunglasses on Frank is because he blinks EVERY time haha.

(Click for bigger previews)

Which one do you like better (of the two below)? I am trying to figure out a general style I can start creating among the images to come. The first one is pretty close to original image and the second one has undergone some more editing.

Comments and Criticism are welcome

Thanks!! - Tyler