The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.
Description
While I have travelled through Sedona before, I’ve never actually stayed here. So I booked a trip, and this was shot on the first afternoon here. I had done some Google sleuthing to find this location. It was cloudy in the morning and the sky started clearing around noon. Not long after this the shot was made the clouds completely disappeared. So to get some clouds in the frame I had to shoot in harsh mid-day light. I included the unedited file to see what I was dealing with. As of this morning it’s cloudy with snow on the ground. here. Hoping for some better conditions this later this week!
Specific Feedback
All feedback welcome
Technical Details
Nikon Z7ii, Nikkor Z 24-120mm @42mm, f/11, 1/30, ISO 31, polarizer. Two images were focus stacked. Processed in ACR and PS.
I do a lot of shooting on day hikes in the Sierras in summer, so I’m also challenged by harsh mid-day sunlight. I’ve found black and white can work well. (I actually wonder if this is part of the reason why Ansel Adams used black and white so much.) Have you experimented with a black and white version? Specifically, you might find that you don’t need to worry as much about flattening the strong contrast.
For the composition, I like the reflection, and the contrast between the smooth stone at the edge of the pool and the rough stone of the cliffside.
Cloudy with snow on the ground sounds like a pretty good option to me. I think the processing has made the colors look unnatural and the shadows look flat. I thought the original sky wasn’t too bad.
You pulled some engaging elements into this photo. The clouds, Cathedral Rock, curves of the pond, and a reflection. I am a fan of the overall composition, but I don’t need a lot of the right and left, so tried cropping that, which also had the effect of allowing the pond to be more of a leading line to the rock.
Also felt the desire to mute the sky color a bit, and to get less blue cast showing through the clouds.
Mid-day sun is a big help in accentuating desert textures.
I bet you can pull some more detail out of the shadows in the Rock with ACR; might need to do some one-exposure HDR processing to get them into your image. Might try some dehaze treatment for the pool. @Dan_Hicks suggestion about monochrome got me thinking, so I ended up the attached.
@Dan_Hicks , @Igor_Doncov , @Dick_Knudson , thanks for all of your comments and suggestions! I’ll go back to the digital darkroom and play with this image some more.
An image worth some work but there are difficult color and tonal issues from the original underexposure. @Dick_Knudson has a good idea but the sky competes too much. The sweep of the clouds suggests a crop from the left to move the spires off center. I started with your top image and selected the two spifes and used a curve to brighten and increase contrast, then did a B/W. That threw the color off even more but allowed the Magenta slider in B/W to bring them out nicely. I didn’t take time to separate the sky but it needs some sort of separation from the spires, darkening and lower contrast. There is too much blue in the rest of the image to darken it globally. Just a start of some ideas.
@Diane_Miller, thanks for your comment. I’m actually in Sedona as I write this, only have my laptop to edit with. I’ll work on this image after I get back to Oregon next week.
Sedona’s an amazing place. My Grandpa and Uncle ran cattle in that area back in the day; it’s a different world now. I hope you’re enjoying much sunshine; back home it’s a bit dreary currently.
Those are really nice rock formations. I prefer your original composition but the saturation seems a bit high to my eye.
@John_Williams Yes, Sedona is busy with tourists even in the off-season now. I’m editing on a MacBook Pro with a 13 inch uncalibrated display so definitely color etc. may be off. It snowed last week and Friday morning was very special. Heading home tomorrow and I will have a lots of editing to do!
