I took about 150 different images from Dante’s View but breathe easy, I will only post a few.
Canon 5D MKIV, 70-200mm with 1.4 extender @280mm and cropped. 1/640 sec, f/16, iso 250
Any comments are appreciated.
Don, Dante’s View is indeed a very good place for this kind of shot and I think you have seen and captured something that is very pleasing. There is no wrong interpretation for this type of images but I think there is something that can be improved about the visual flow. I took the liberty to play with this image a little bit and I find darkening the lower left and right corners seem to focus my attention to the flow of the salt river better. I played with the crop a little bit but I don’t think cropping it panoramically as shown below is any better than what you presented above. Great eyes! Looking forward to seeing more.
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Hi Don, Another location I know nothing about. I assumed this looks like some kind of salt flat and then read @Adhika_Lie’s comment about a salt river.
I’ll be honest, I’m not that mad about this shot as it is presented but I think there are some things that could be done to make it stand out a bit more. Also something I found useful if you ever visit there again.
Actaully I’ll start with the useful bit. I have found with long lens shots, epsecially ones like this were there is a reasonable amount of detail, is that at f/16 things start to go soft. This was a trial and error thing with my own photography, but I rarely go over f/11. Especially at the longer end of lens. All around light diffraction but I find this is accentuated with the long lens. You seem to have had enough shutter speed to work with that you could have opened the apeture up slightly. It may be the file I’m looking at but things do seem slightly on the soft side.
Overall, for me, the image is too busy and also seems to be a bit flat (ie lacking contrast). I’ve had some of my own long lens images crtiqued (not here) recently and one of the big messages was that if you are going to do long lens intimate shots you have to absolutely nail the composition. Around the salt river (middle right) you have captured a lovely arcing pattern in the main subject, but then also patterns that mimic it in the surrounding sediments. I think you need to focus on these patterns a bit and accentuate them. As a result I have made a rather drastic crop but I feel it does the job.
Re the contrast, I have made some adjusment in PS. Mostly just using curves adjustments and applying them to darks, etc. I think it makes the river stand out more and accentautes the surrounding patterns and geology.
If you had a shot that foucsued in on that river a bit more, I would consider working on that file.
Let me know what you think and by all means feel free to disagree or ask questions. Hope it helps and see my edit below.
Cheers,
Eugene
Very cool looking abstract!! Funny, I had not read any comments and was trying to figure out how to handle the LRC. I then scrolled down to the version @Adhika_Lie and it was just what I was thinking. Very creative and well done image.
Thank you for your comments. I modified my image based on some of the suggestions and I like the revised image better. I did not crop as much from the top and kept the luminosity of the center of the image the same as the original to keep the focus on the wonderful wandering line…
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Your repost nailed it for me Don. Wonderful abstract. The lack of scale adds to the mystery.