Grand Canyon...comments please...

[CTYankee]

First post here. Posted this on other BB, was curious what this site has to say.

10D
50mm (Sigma 50-500...not your usual landscape lens!)
1/20
f16
tripod, MLU, cable release

Only changes in PS were to add a bit more dynamic range to recover highlights and a very small ammount of sharpening. Oh, and the frame of course

[mattp]

Its a good picture, and certainly one to be pleased with. You've caught the light at a good time, and it gives a nice glow to the rock in the foreground. I think ideally I would like to have seen a little more detail in the middle of the picture to add to the sense of scale. Also, it is a pity that the sky looks washed out at the top, perhaps a filter would have helped here, but I don't know much about SLR's and filters I'm afraid. Good job though!

Regards,

matt

[Steph_B]

Hi CTYankee,

First of all, welcome to PR! I hope you will be more than a passing visitor: I, for sure, would like to see more of your work!

This is a very pleasing pic to look at, there is no doubt. The exposure was difficult to make and you succeeded (with a bit of PS work) to keep the highlights and shadows to a reasonable level. The pic is also sharp (which tells me that you used a tripod)!

Yet, I feel that there are a couple of things which you might want to try next time (or with PS if possible). However, this only reflects my personal vision which might have nothing to do with yours.

With PS:
-While I like to overall warmth of the pic, I feel that there is too much yellow in it. I played with it in PS, reduced the saturation by 10% and the hue by 5% (RGB channel). This looked TO ME and on MY screen better and more natural.
-I also find that the difference of brightness between the immediate foreground and the BG is a bit too strong. With the curve tool, I increased the brightness of the darker tones in the RBG channel which brought the FG 'back to life'.

In the field:
- I think that the tonal difference between the FG and BG is the main difficulty here. I would have tried to tone down the sky using a split ND filter (this is a filter which I use very often - some would say that I use it too much!).
- If you do not have this type of filter, I would have then taken another shot in exactly the same position with a different exposure in order eventually to combine them both: i.e. you take a shot at -0.7 stop and at +0.7 stop, and then you combine the highltights of the darker shot with the shadows of the brighter one into the same pic. I think this would have worked nicely here.
- Finally, if you like large printouts, I would advise you to stay away from shutter speeds from 1/8 to 1/20 because of the mirror shake. In this particular case, I would have used F5.6 (probably the optimal aperture for your lens), and would have shot the pic at 1/160. You might have gotten a sharper pic (even though this already looks very sharp).

These are all details though. This pic is already very good as it is, and definitely a keeper (obviously).

As I said: I hope to see more!

Cheers,

Steph.

[CTYankee]

While I like to overall warmth of the pic, I feel that there is too much yellow in it. I played with it in PS, reduced the saturation by 10% and the hue by 5% (RGB channel). This looked TO ME and on MY screen better and more natural.
-I also find that the difference of brightness between the immediate foreground and the BG is a bit too strong. With the curve tool, I increased the brightness of the darker tones in the RBG channel which brought the FG 'back to life'.

I agree that it almost has a sense of being too processed, but the light was very unusual at this time. It was a hazy day and the sun was casting a very golden glow that night. Everything took on a very strong yellow cast. So while reducing this would make things look more natural, it would not be true to the scene. One of those cases where real life just looks too fake.

I'll try the second tip about the foreground and BG brightness and see how that makes things look.

In the field:
- I think that the tonal difference between the FG and BG is the main difficulty here. I would have tried to tone down the sky using a split ND filter (this is a filter which I use very often - some would say that I use it too much!).
- If you do not have this type of filter, I would have then taken another shot in exactly the same position with a different exposure in order eventually to combine them both: i.e. you take a shot at -0.7 stop and at +0.7 stop, and then you combine the highltights of the darker shot with the shadows of the brighter one into the same pic. I think this would have worked nicely here.

I do have another version that has the multiple exposure. Just workig on getting the blending done. Anyone have any tricks for using masks or anything in PS to nicely blend two layers? I have one action that I've used a bit, but it doesn't always work for photos with many regions of wide dynamic range.

My ND filter doesn't fit on this lens. It was actually a 50-500 that I was using. At the time I was taking tele shots of the canyon. Then this light appeared and I went wide to capture the scene. Before I could switch to a 'better' lens it was gone.

- Finally, if you like large printouts, I would advise you to stay away from shutter speeds from 1/8 to 1/20 because of the mirror shake. In this particular case, I would have used F5.6 (probably the optimal aperture for your lens), and would have shot the pic at 1/160. You might have gotten a sharper pic (even though this already looks very sharp).

I should have noted that I was using a tripod (obviously) as well as MLU and cable release. Any softness you see is probably from the web compression, haze and just normal softness of Canon 10D RAW files. I did sharpen it up, but didn't like it. It just was not true to what I saw.

I'll be sure to post more. Right now I'm struggling with my images from Zion. VERY hard place to shoot. Lots of shadows right next to bright light. Probably at least 8 stops of range in the most simple photos. Bright blue skies right next to highly shaded rock walls. Just goes to show how amazing the human eye is that we can see it all!

Thanks for the comments and suggestions.

Doug

[Steph_B]

I went to Zion the other day. I agree: fantastic light, but very difficult to shoot. I stayed only a couple of hours there and got nothing. Makes me want to take a photo seminar at Fatali's school!

Cheers,

Steph.

[rohitharsh]

Hello,
Nice pic. i likes the framing. No problem over there. Though I think the highlights are a bit washed out. This is totally subjective but generally I like to see little more warmth in the lights, to the top left side of image.

keep it up!!

[Chunk]

I do have another version that has the multiple exposure. Just workig on getting the blending done. Anyone have any tricks for using masks or anything in PS to nicely blend two layers? I have one action that I've used a bit, but it doesn't always work for photos with many regions of wide dynamic range.

Beautiful shot Doug, I love that creamy golden light.

Here's a blending method (Layer Mask) that makes sense to me.
http://luminous-landscape.com/tutori...blending.shtml