Day Six: Mesa

This evening my friend Mesa came by to get some help with processing some images she took last week. She's far more accomplished in Photoshop than I am and I have the edge when it comes to Lightroom. We worked on the images together...me showing her ways to process in Lightroom...her showing me some Photoshop tricks I didn't know. Give and take. The community of photographers locally, nationally and even internationally is great at sharing techniques, advice and inspiration. There's always more to learn...no matter what level you're at. Me...I have plenty to learn and then some...but this project will certainly move me along the path.

Mesa and I found a combination of Photoshop actions for a grainy warm black and white look that we both really liked. We used it on two of her images, and I've used it on the image above I took of Mesa before she left this evening. I'd set the lights and background up this afternoon so I'd be ready when she was here and we shot for less than 5 minutes. I planned on black and white and finding a combination of actions that produced a warm black and white I really like was serendipity.

Strobist: 2 AB800 at 1/16th power on background. Key is AB1600 at 1/8th power in 24x36 softbox with a grid, high camera left. There is a 4x8 reflector camera right to add a bit of fill to the shadow side. It's also flagging the AB800 camera right to keep it from spilling on to the shadow side of Mesa's face. The AB800 camera left is spilling a little on the camera left shoulder.