Two weeks ago I started my trip moving from California back to New Jersey. I decided before I left I had to detour and spend at least a day in Death Valley. I had only ever been there in the summer when the idea of going out during the day in the heat to shoot wasn’t very appealing so this was a great experience. I stumbled upon some cracks and decided to try out some shots. This was my last shot of the day as after the sun had just about set and there was still a little color left in the sky.
What technical feedback would you like if any?
Post processing, I did some focus stacking which I don’t do often and some light warping to compensate for shooting at 16mm .
What artistic feedback would you like if any?
Composition, I realize this is far from an original composition at the cracks but was hoping my take was done alright.
Any pertinent technical details:
5d Mark3 16-35 1/50 F/ 8 iso:400 focus stack from 3 shots.
You may only download this image to demonstrate post-processing techniques.
4 Likes
David, this is a real fine take from that mud crack area. The processing looks really good to my eye. My only suggestion is to attempt to photograph in an area with a better class of people than Dave and me. 
1 Like
I think the composition and editing look great. Good sharpening also. My only critique will be the graininess in the sky. Maybe you made a global sharp and that affected the sky?.
Other than that looks awesome
David, this is a very nice find in the mud cracks and a beautiful sky to match. I shot this area in DV for the first time a few weeks ago and found composing a nice arrangement like this to be quite challenging. Nicely done!
David, I was with @Alan_Kreyger a few weeks ago at this location, and I have to agree with him that finding strong compositions like this are not as easy as you might think. I’m not sure we are any better class of people than @DaveDillemuth and @Harley_Goldman either 
That is just about a perfect arrangement of cracks, I’m sure it took some work to find. The processing on the land looks great, your focus stack worked well. I agree with @Carlos_Cuervo that the sky is a little grainy, perhaps a little local noise reduction could smooth that out.
David,
My very first thought was, Why would @Dave_Dillemuth post such a similar image (or the same scene) right after posting just a few days ago? I literally was trying to compare them side by side thinking this had to be the same exact horseshoe pattern in the dried mud. To my relief it’s NOT the same scene, but of course the same area.
And to that, another beautiful capture from DV and the mud flats. The horseshoe-like deep crack in the dried mud is fascinating and I think you’ve showcased it well.
I do kinda wish the color in the clouds was closer to the horizon so that you could have less sky and keep the emphasis on the patterns below, but alas, not much to be done about that; unless you did something drastic like transforming the sky and squishing it down. But this works beautifully as presented.
Processing, colors, sat all look great.
Lon
Too funny. I scrolled down to see what I had posted originally, and then saw Lon’s comment about the other image being Dave D’s. As with that one, I think this works great!
@Harley_Goldman @Carlos_Cuervo @Alan_Kreyger @Ed_McGuirk @Lon_Overacker @John_Williams
Thank you for the comments everyone. I didn’t realize how close it looked to Dave D’s cracks shot, ironically I think I cloned out Dave and Harley from way in the background of this shot. I’ll work on the noise in the clouds, should be an easy fix. Lon I have some other comps where the lower clouds were lit up and the sky was cropped more I’ll work on those as well. I liked how this comp came so I spent more time working on it than the others.
I really enjoy this image, David. The colors in the clouds are layered and deep, the mountains aren’t too small to balance the foreground and clouds, and the cracks are perfect leading lines. Well done.
If I had my druthers, I would have moved myself slightly to my right and pointed the camera back to this same scene to balance the three compositional elements a little differently: circular crack generally centered, mountain slightly left of center, pink cloud slightly right of center. Just me, though.
I also wonder if you could increase the tonal range of the mud surface since to me it looks a bit low in contrast.
