In yesterday’s post I mentioned that we made an unscheduled visit to a Maasai village; here’s the full story. The day before five of us clambered into a van best-suited for three shooters and we had had a decidedly mediocre shoot. It was a tight fit and we had our hearts set on seeing Grevy’s zebra which are indigenous to the Samburu but there were none to be found. The next day after traveling to Sweetwaters Camp, I wasn’t really in the mood to go on another game drive. I approached Ryan, our guide, and asked him if there would be an opportunity to do a village shoot rather than a game drive. Now Ryan is the kind of guy who will get things done if you tell him what you want and sure enough, he took us out in his own landrover as there were no vans available.
We set out not exactly knowing where we would land up. The lady at the front desk mentioned a cultural village at one of the park gates but when we arrived we realized that it was a staged affair and there were no actors. Ryan decided to leave the park and check out a small village just outside. It was a bit of nervous affair as Ryan and his driver negotiated for Krista and I to shoot there. After settling on a small amount of money, we were allowed to wander in the village and take pictures. The chief’s son was determined to show me his home and–while trying very hard to ignore Ryan’s jokes about why–I followed him to the edge of the village. There I met his mother who you see in the image above. She was a lovely woman who kept on smiling as if she was really enjoying being the centre of attention.
There are two versions of this image today. One is the colour version processed in Photoshop and the other is a split-toned version taken into Lightroom after working on it in Photoshop. I know that sounds backwards but I am far more comfortable in Photoshop than I am in Lightroom. I haven’t yet set up my data structure in Lightroom so I worked on the RAW file in Photoshop first. The split-tone is based on a pre-set from Matt Kloskowski, which I applied and then adjusted. I saved it as my own pre-set called Classic Kenya. Working with pre-sets seems to quite popular with Lightroom users but I read something on John Beardsworth’s blog which makes sense to me: “Never pay a penny for a Develop preset. If you’ve collected more than a few presets, you’re relying on others’ judgement about their pictures, not on your own eyes and creative instincts. Photographers are hunters, not sheep“. This image is proof of that in more ways than one. Which one do you prefer?
In this particular case, I like the color one better due to the green door. It separates the elements better in my mind and is unexpected.
I love your thinking about presets, by the way.
Mark
First, what a wonderful adventure you had! How very exciting and an extra bonus that you had a great guide.
As for the photo: Color version, definitely. Without the color, the culture from this village is lost, I feel. It shows the love of the variety of colors, in jewelry, clothing and their home (love that green door btw).
Wonderfu portrait!
I, too, like the color version better, but I think if you opened up the shadows on her face in the split tone, I could change my mind. I think it might help to separate her face from the shadows of the doorway—which I think is why the green works well in the color one. (I also agree with Mark that the green is unexpected, though, so maybe I’d still prefer the color one.)
Totally agree about presets. The can be a good place to start, but I almost always make my own adjustments after applying them.
You know I like sepia, but I think in this case I prefer the color version.
I love the colour image. The green door pops and creates separation from her face. Love this one Sabrina.
I think you have to go color here. It’s just so rich and striking. And while I love your framing too, I’d also love to see a nice close-up too.
Great work.
I’ll echo what both Mark’s said.
I almost always like color better. Other people get split tone or BW to look nice, but every time I try it I think the color looks better.
In this image in particular, the subject is the woman and she pops off the color image and blends into the duotone.
It looks like the colour image wins out, hands down. Lots of great suggestions here too…thanks everyone!