Here’s another from my favorite wall in the Merced River Canyon. I’ve photographed and posted from this part of the wall at least a couple other times over the years. This is a 4-image focus stack in Helicon. Not sure how necessary that was, although this part of the wall was above me and not perpendicular, so focused on each of the 4 quadrants.
Nothing special here, but would still like your comments and feedback.
I like this, and love the textures. As you asked for tighter crop options I had a play. I initially headed for a vertical crop on the right hand side as I was drawn to the red rock in the crevice and was vaguely happy with a 2x3 from there, but then I looked at your original again and noticed how different the texture is on the left, with the swirls and cascading layers.
So I went with a 16x9 vertical and think I like it. I bumped up the contrast a touch in curves as well, as the LHS doesn’t have the same shadows of the right.
Wow Lon, I think this fits into the “Epic Intimate” genre that @Alex_Noriega has talked about. The color, textures and pattern here are just marvelous. I would be pretty hard pressed to improve on this crop, it’s very clear that you put a lot of thought into crafting it. To me this is sort of like a hybrid between color and B&W. The rusty red colors initially grab your eye, but then you begin to appreciate the many tones of grey, much like you would in a well done B&W image. It’s the best of both worlds !!!
The other thing that is very powerful here is that you are not parallel to the angle of the cliff face. This creates an strong illusion of having 3 dimensions. I’m sure the focus stack made a difference in this regard. This one is a sure winner in my book…
Lon, at first it was looking abstract to me. I love the colors. I thought I should take away some contrast to strengthen the abstract. But what I came across was amazing in my eyes. So I went playing with your image. I hope you don’t mind me doing that.
I found an enorm prehistoric beast in your wall. See your changed image.
I like the way it’s been presented without cropping and with the unforced colours. The only change I would make is shifting the greenish tones towards cyan. A very well seen framing.
Lon, I prefer your original to the suggested crops. I do like the direction that @Kah-Kit_Yoong
took the greenish tones but that is a nit and very much personal preference. The thing about a tighter crop is I think you either loose depth or sacrifice some of the abstract nature of the scene. For me your crop strikes the right balance.
I can see why you guys get excited about this place. I wish I had taken advantage of it during my Yosemite years.
I almost never disagree with your composition decisions. But here I will. I see several proposals. Here is mine. There’s also a wonderful possibility in the llc but unfortunately it needs more material to the left of the frame.
The rocks are spectacularly beautiful. I also cooled the WB to bring out the remarkable blues in the rock surface.
I am a sucker for this kind of image, Lon. This is simply beautiful and can be interpreted in any way you want. Color is very malleable and I consider for an image like this to be a matter of taste. The composition feels very balanced. Your focus stacking pays off for sure.
I like what you have going on, but to me, I want to showcase the red rocks a bit more. I tried this crop and like it. No other thoughts, another fine take of that wall area.
Ask, and ye shall receive! Thanks so much for the comments and crop suggestions. They are all excellent.
@Kah-Kit_Yoong, great suggestion on tweaking the color! Very keen eye to spot the green. I see it now, but not at all during the entire process. In fact I had previously posted a similar image from this exact section of the wall a couple years ago that was really blue. I think in the back of my mind I didn’t want to take too far, probably resulting in not enough blue/cyan. Anyway, thanks for pointing this out. Of course as others have pointed out, it’s pretty subjective at this point too.
@James_Stubbs thanks for your comment and suggested crop. I too liked the “cascading” layers or ridges arranged vertically which is a reason I kept them in the original. I like your vertical, although for me, the main red rock is too close to the edge. But it presents possibilities
@Ben_van_der_Sande, thanks for your comment and suggestion. You focused on what I thought was the focal point, that triangular rock sitting on the ledge. How did it get there? Did everything else just fall away around it?. And no, I do not mind you offering an edit. I think these are excellent exercises for both the OP and the person offering the suggestions.
Thank you @Igor_Doncov and @Harley_Goldman for your crop suggestions as well; similar in the landscape format and they both work. As I was thinking, there are lots of possibilities here for viable crops.
Very cool abstract Lon, I like how the original crop showcases the repeating patters that are nicely broken up by the red rock. I like the slight color adjustments by Kah Kit.
Lon, I really enjoy this shot as is. This is a well conceived image. Those strong vertical lines cause my mind to imagine the flow of a waterfall that isn’t really there. The only suggestion I’d make would be to slightly darken the lighter rock in the upper right corner. I also like the color shift that @Kah-Kit_Yoong made, but I think the image works either way.
This is such a strong image as originally posted. The textures, colors and lines are so beautiful. I guess since I know it’s Yosemite I prefer the vertical crop, though I also like the horizontal that Igor made. Just a well seen and processed piece of rock, just like your title says!
I think that this is one of those images that you could crop several different ways and still have a winner, Lon. The colors are gorgeous and I like the diagonal flow of the lines in the rock face along with all those wonderful textures. I do like @Kah-Kit_Yoong’s suggestion of shifting the greens a little more to cyan as it is how I would picture it. BTW, my favorite crop is your original post.
I love rockscapes and this is a beauty. I agree with Kah Kit’s suggestion and I like both Igor’s and Harley’s crop suggestions, but I like your original composition also. Of the three, I prefer Harley’s the best however. The image itself, regardless of composition, gets my heart going. I love the different hues of blues and grays, and I love the rusty reds. Rocks enthrall me for some reason, and I love slowly inspecting this, checking out all the small details, the textures, and cracks. Rocks are art, and this really captures that.
Lon: I can spend hours on subjects like this extracting different comps. It’s one of my favorite imaging exercises. All of the crops and reworks are good for me, proving that the original subject is extremely worthy. Well seen and superbly captured. >=))>
A lovely abstract view of this rock wall, Lon. The touches of rust scattered throughout keep my eyes moving. I like this crop with the nearly corner-to-corner diagonal crack and the vertical streaks. Igor’s horizontal version works well also.
