Two blogs in one day, what a superb effort. This morning when I worked on the Day 8th images, the sun was shining brightly and the light was more than adequate for the task.

This afternoon it is a different story, plenty of cloud cover sometimes obscuring the afternoon sun and the shadows are almost non existent in my backyard. So what to do?

Recently I made some portrait style images of one of my motorcycling mates and when I reviewed them I thought that some may fit the day 9 images. Probably in the quality of light department but probably not when it comes to warmth, and I don’t mean degrees Kelvin. When you see them I’m sure you see what I mean.

A close look at the face shows the light has highlighted the skin pores, particularly on the nose and a few blemishes on the forehead. If the light had been softer, these blemishes may not have been so prominent. Note that the only shadow on the face is under the left eye.

The expression was of his own choosing, portraying the perceived bikie persona I guess.

In the following image the light is almost directly on the face and there is a slight shadow to the left of the face, but not pronounced enough to change the content of the image.

His defiant pose was his own idea, talk about a bikies warmth.

In the following image the light is shining on the right side of the face, and creates a pleasant shadow to the left of the nose, almost dividing the face. Again the strong light has brought out the skin imperfections and pores and has created quite a large hot spot in the hair.

On this occasion, my cobber thought it was ‘cool’ so we left it there.

In the next image we mucked about a bit with the light and his position. Finally I kept the light on the right side of the face and he turned his face slightly into the light. This gave some highlights to the stubble on the face and to the logo on the sun glasses whilst retaining most of the shadow.

After looking at these images this afternoon I decided to include two attractive faces to lighten the load as they say.

In the first image my friend is looking directly into the camera and the flash has  reduced the softness in the skin tones and hardened the image. However the highlights in the eyes make up for it somewhat as does the glow on her cheek bones.

In the next image my friend has adopted a relaxed pose with her head turned slightly to the left to darken that side of her hair and give her a slightly whimsical look. I used a very wide aperture, f2.8 and ensured the light was soft and utilised a black bed sheet as a backdrop.

Well, I’m glad this afternoon has been overcast. I’ve had fun with Day 9’s images.

Hope you enjoy looking.