Bryce Canyon, Utah

Here are a few more from today's scanning session.

We stopped at Bryce for only a couple of hours on our way to Zion. We didn't hike, only stopping at the views on the road. It was FREEZING and windy. My favorite viewing area was in Fairy Land. I want to go back someday and hike there. But for now, here are some shots from the top.

Again I used my old OM-3 and either 35mm f2, 90mm f2 or a 180mm f2.8 lens (the horizontal one was with the 180). The time of day wasn't negotiable and I had to make do with the harsh lighting. Probably there was a polarizer on the 90 and the 35. Provia 100 again.

Thoughts? Ways to cope better with difficult lighting?

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Originally Posted by Iguanamom

Here are a few more from today's scanning session.

Thoughts? Ways to cope better with difficult lighting?

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Hello Iganamom!

I have been looking at your shots and am experiencing a growing feeling of aniticipation (I will be in the area myself at the end of the month!)... This Bryce Canyon is a gem! I hope you will post some pics from Zion as well soon.

I liked your pics... well most of them anyway! They are sharp and the composition is pleasing. However, they are also a little bit on the over-exposed side... but this might be your scanner... BTW which scanner are you using?

Perfect blue sky and sun are usually what everybody if looking/hoping for while vacationing... well not us!

Here are some advices when faced with the Big Blue Sky at noon:
- use a (warm) polarizer to pump up the colors and reduce haze and vegetation glare. The warming filter is mostly going to be usefull around noon when the light is SO cold (i.e. blueish)
- use Velvia 50 or 100 for landscape/flower etc... Provia is a softer slide film, quite good for people and urban landscape
- avoid including too much sky in your composition, mostly if there are small white clouds. They will be totally burned out and shapeless!
- Meter for the highlights! .. mostly with slide film! .. and bracket: a light and a dark pic can be combined together to give you more dynamic range... that's an advantage of post processing your pics in a digital workflow. I posted a thread in this forum not a long time ago...
- when doing close-ups, use a fill flash to soften the shadows...

I particularly liked your last two shots, and how the pinnacles (?) seem to radiate light.

I am looking forward to more of your landscape pics!

Cheers,

Steph.

Oh... another little thingy: I have the impression that the horizon is not perfectly... well ... horizontal! You might want to correct this in PS.

and another tip:

- when the sky is boring (solid color white or blue), try to put something in it, such as an overhanging branch. You did this in your last shot and that the best of the bunch.

Hope this helps!

Thanks Steph. The light was a pain in the butt and the posted images are a bit lighter than the slides. I'll give a warming filter a try - that may help. And I did bring some Kodachrome with me, they're not back from the lab yet. I'm really interested in seeing the difference.

I'll post some more examples later...

Oh and BTW - a lot of the time the horizon isn't level - it's tilted and slanted because the earth is tilted and slanted. There's one particular shot that shows this very clearly, I'll try to remember to post it tonight.

Cool shots. Maybe you can boost the color and contrast some in PS?

Greg