practice didn't help

As I mentioned a few days ago, I practiced a photograph that a friend of mine & I discussed making together. Practicing didn't help since his skin tone is different than mine & blowing out the background for my skin tone totally works. With his, it really didn't or I was doing something wrong, which is possible too.
Either way, we're not done with the idea yet. We took quite a few & this is just one of them. The background is a bit grey at the top of the image which I notice on the computer but not on the back of the camera. I wasn't looking for it though.



It also didn't occur to me that taking my rings off would reveal a tan line! I have more colour than I realized.