Early one morning I took a detour into the Germiston industrial area, looking for Photo-opportunities. I found this man on the sidewalk opposite NCP, sitting next to a wall. His name is Karl and he has been on the road for years. He grew up in Roodepoort and he thinks that his kids are still in the Roodepoort area. He’s a friendly man and allowed me to do his portrait without hesitation. The life he lived is written all over his face and yet he managed to keep a kind nature and my short encounter with him filled me with an appreciation for the privileged life that I live.

This shot was done in aperture-priority mode, set at F8 at ISO 400. This gave me a shutter speed of 1/125. The strong backlight over his left shoulder, caused the camera to underexpose his face. The white wall on his right filled the shadows in his face a bit but it wasn’t enough. I added an on-camera flash to fill in the shadows in his face, without washing out all the detail. I increased the contrast in Nik Colour-effects and turned the shot to monochrome in Nik-Silver-effects and added a slight coffee tone for the final effect.

3-Black Small-Ress