La Bes?

Mali, West Africa 2005

We were south of Taodenni making our way across the Sahara to Tombouctou. These men who were transporting salt from Taodenni, were doing the same. It was the season for the salt caravans. Some had bought their salt and were headed south and some were headed north, their camels laden with hay which they dropped in piles on the route. They’d use it to feed their animals on the return trip. Desert tribes do not steal from each other and no one steals from a Touareg. Retribution would be swift and possibly fatal.

The man on the left of the photo is Ali, a man who is respected not only for his age but for his knowledge of the Sahara. He began his education as a boy accompanying his father on caravans from Tombouctou to Morocco. The men of the caravan greet him with their tagelmoust covering their nose and mouth. It is a sign of respect.

We had stopped to get some shots of the caravans when these men came loping over to greet Ali. To get my shot, I metered their clothing as I hate it when faces are lost in shadow. As a result I lost the desert and the sky…blown out to whiteness. I like the posture of the men: the holding of hands during the conversation. I like the way the men keep an eye on the caravan as it doggedly heads toward Tombouctou.  And so, Dear Reader, I decided to F.I.P. (Fix In Photoshop).

I’ve used filters on my photos before to add texture or color. I’d only use one filter, change the blend mode, tweak the opacity a bit and call it quits. Then yesterday, I watched an Adobe video about using more than one filter, or using the same filter twice but with different blend modes.  I decided to try. I didn’t have a set of purchased filters. They aren’t expensive, but I was taught to be frugal by my Italian mother. I used my own filters and I made others when mine weren’t sufficient. (It was a time killer! No professional would work that way! He couldn’t afford it.)

Here is the photo untouched:

Kolshi Bkhir?

I didn’t do anything in Camera Raw. I planned to let my filters do it all. First I used Alien Skin’s Exposure 4 to get the border and some scratches. You could do that in photo shop as well. Then I picked one of my photos that has an orange cast. I added other textures to that photo, such as a photo of handmade paper. I added a blank layer, filled it with gray with a blend mode of overlay and darkened some areas using the brush tool and painting in black. If you don’t like the results, either change the opacity or paint in white or discard and start over. (I did all three from time to time.) Then I’d get another colored layer…whatever color you think might work. You can always change that using the hue slider in Hue/Saturation.

Don’t forget to go to the filters in Photoshop. Check out pixelate…there are lots of textures hidden in there and then there is Gaussian Blur. We can’t do without it.

You get the idea. It’s a matter of trial and error and having time to begin anew. No one can give you an exact recipe. It works only for the specific image. I used to buy books showing how to do it, but unless I used the same photo the author used, it didn’t work.  Doing it my way is for the person who likes to sit at the computer and see what miracles can be wrought. It’s not for some one who has a deadline. 

I’m pleased now with my photo of the Touareg Greeting. I think I’ll print it this afternoon and maybe frame it.

Sadly with the problems in Mali now, no tours are going to Timbuctu or Taodenni. It’s no fun to be at the wrong end of a Kalashnikov. Believe me, I know!