Getting around to sorting through my Zion images, I'm realizing that those extreme contrasty conditions there play absolute havoc on your photography! :eek: Not sure how many shots will be keepers yet, but here's a few typical shots. Do I have anything here?

Gb

Velvia, Kodachome, and (2) digital shots in that order.

The third and fourth shots are nice, I think the third is awesome, it is a shot that looks better the bigger it gets, in my opinion. I got a lot of detail from the shadows in the first shot in photoshop, which is the problem, exposure for film is way different than digital. That dark patch dominates, time of day probably called the light. I think you got something in the third shot. Don't get me wrong though... I like them all...

I think only one of these images has a contrast issue. By limiting the amount of sky in the others the contrast (or range of light) is reduced enough for these to be very usable images.

In the one image with a lot of bright sky and dark shadow you could use them as composition elements. You could even boost the color to make the differences stronger. I would suggest that you rotate that image a little to the right.

Thanks guys. I really had to tweak them to get them to where they're at and they're still not what I want, but I guess there might be something here. Reverb, I agree on number 3. I think if I can bring out the 3 dimensionality that it might look good printed very large. We will see. MB I'll try your color sat and rotation ideas.

GB

Hi GB :) I don't think they're bad at all. I like 1, 3, & 4. On shot 1, I think the dark shadow works well, though I would try and do something with that blown out cloud. Shot 3, I really wouldn't change a thing with it, though would be a good B&W candidate :D Shot 4 is a nice foliage shot. Might play with the levels a hair on it but, that's nit picking. Looking forward to seeing some more shots from your trip :)

Aaron

Aaron - Thanks for commenting. I guess I expected more out of these pix than what I ended up with. But with some good PP they may yet make it. B&W eh.. I tried it here and upped the contrast a bit too. Not sure... but it is different. Maybe if I had shot a few on B&W with a red filter :)

GB, the third shot is beautiful as it is. i do not like the b&w version of it. One thing I was thinking about with that one is how it may have looked if your focus were on the trees in the fg as opposed to the mountain. I do like the mountain sharp and it looks to be popping out at us through the trees, but would be interesting to compare two versions of the same image. Was your focus intentional? or autofocus? Just curious because my approach is usually to focus on the fg elements (in most cases) but i think it works really well like this as you have it.
The 1st shot is good with me except for the blown out cloud. The hard shadows and lines cutting up the photo into different areas of contrast and color is interesting.
The 4th is simple and effective. The 2nd shot is really suffering from a scene that has very poor lighting conditions to work with. the framing is not bad though.

Aaron - Thanks for commenting. I guess I expected more out of these pix than what I ended up with. But with some good PP they may yet make it. B&W eh.. I tried it here and upped the contrast a bit too. Not sure... but it is different. Maybe if I had shot a few on B&W with a red filter :)

The B&W didn't convey as nicely in reality as it did in my warped mind...LOL Thought the subtle changes in rock color could make for an interesting b&w. I do like the color version as is though.

I think they are all pretty good, but 1 and 3 are my favs...the 4th one looks a little over saturated to me, but it could be my monitor

The reason I like the third is because of the color. The exposure creates a pastel effect that is lovely. For it to work in black and white you would have to burn it softer at the highlights and much longer and progressively harder for the midtones. The shadows would take a medium light for a long time. Flashing for the highlights would be the last step. Lets not be confused, this is a good image in B&W or color, I think its stronger in color because its muted.

Great shots, I love Zion!!

I'm a noob, and I'm not familiar with terms and techniques yet. With that being said, what can be done to make the red rock really look like they're on fire (like the real thing)?

when i was in utah, i was talking with the photo shop guys in moab, and they said they boost red saturation to make the red rock look more natural. i had them print two big (8.5 by like 20) panoramics from bryce and they came out beautiful. plus the normal film prints they did looked pretty good to

Gary, I did try that actually, focusing on the trees - it didn't come out very good. I think it really boils down to what you're trying to emphasize. If the trees etc are great, you might do that instead, but they really supplement the rocks here. Plus, I find that with very few exceptions landscape shots really require a deep DOF. Anything else robs the viewer of information. # 2 was very challenging btw -- I did a few self portraits while standing in that shadow area and they basically were totally unusable, even after trying to save them. I guess that cloud really looks funny in # 1 -- I see a lot of blown out areas in digital shooting (or scans) btw. :(

Aaron - I agree it has B&W 'potential.' I think it was Jurgen who stated in an old thread that digital B&W really hasn't caught up to film B&W yet. Plus, desaturating a color image usually doesn't produce as good an image as an original B&Wer. I have a few rolls of B&W in my freezer but haven't shot any in years. Seems that it would be OK to use in the winter when there's no color anyways.

G

J - Thanks for looking. I don't think I bumped up the saturation on # 4 (I think I only adjusted the intensity), but I agree that it might seem like it.

Reverb, I agree, # 3 is the best one here. I just wish I could bring out its dimensionality a little more........ I see what you mean about the pastel colors. They all seem to work together as a unit.

Spiral - What Dylan says sounds good to me. I personally try to avoid bumping things up too much in post processing. If I can remember things well, I try to adjust them to what I remember them being - colors, density, everything. But I'm not above using a little artistic license. Not going overboard's the trick. Btw if you haven't already, you should see the red rock in Sedona :)

G

I like the one at the top and the one at the right. Composition is nice I think and are keepers to me at least.

The one at the top is nicest I think best composition and most interesting the one on the right I thought it was nice how what you did with it, I think I would have done much worse had I been standing there. The foilage on the bottom of it looks a bit unsharp or out of focus to me, I could be wrong.