A sunset view of the Animas River from Baker’s Bridge in Durango CO. This location is famous for a scene in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid with Robert Redford and Paul Newman jumping off a cliff. How did film location scouts find this little local spot for what was a very short scene?
Specific Feedback and Self-Critique
I find sunsets difficult to process. It’s so easy to oversaturate the colors and it usually takes me several passes to find a balance that most closely resembles the live scene…as I remember it.
Any and all comments welcome.
Technical Details
Nikon Z7II, 24-70mm S lens
iso64, f11, 1/4sec
I didn’t think to bracket during the shoot. Processed in Lightroom, adjusting the exposure with the sky mask and then inverted it to tweak the rest of the scene.
Removed unsightly power lines with Photoshop.
I think you were pretty successful on the colors here. I don’t think they are over saturated and I love the colorful reflection in the water. You also have the nice leading line of the river, which my eye follows through the image. Nicely done.
Hi Linda - a dynamic scene and solid composition. I like the colors particularly, however it looks a little bright for this time of day - especially in the water reflection. Those are always darker IRL than the things that are being reflected. You have that reversed here and to me it looks highly unnatural and overly processed. I’d also like to see more of the natural fall off in the way we look at scenes - things get less distinct the farther away from us they are. Here everything is pretty crisp and it looks a bit strange. The snow lacks some detail here and there, but it isn’t blue and I thank you for that. It is an incredible location and I had no idea that the famous movie scene was filmed here. Of course I haven’t seen it for about 20 years!
Anna, the scene is very attractive, especially with the nicely winding river leading back to the horizon. Your framing looks good, also. I’m fine with the brightness in the reflection, since it’s notably darker than the sky that it’s reflecting. The rest of the valley does seem overly bright. The greens in the water catch my eye as a somewhat unusual color. You might try a green hue adjustment. Having said that, I also acknowlege reproducing the colors in sunrise/sunset pictures is often very challenging.
@annalwilson, this is a very pleasing and tranquil scene. I think the color saturation in the sky and the reflection is fine, except that the greens look a little too saturated to my eye. The bottom third of the frame bothered me a little – the big pool of water and the ice bottom left distracted me from the rest of the frame, which I think is very nice. So I played with the crop. Maybe this is better.
It’s been so interesting to read your reactions. It’s made my eyes look at this differently. I tend to err with a heavy hand toward lightening a dark scene during sunset.
@Lisa_Flanagan thank you for taking the time to look and comment!
@Kris_Smith Missionary Ridge, in the background, has lines similar to what you see to the hill to the right. It was a deliberative effort to capture that depth of field. Perhaps it doesn’t always work. I see what you mean about the snow.
@Mark_Seaver The green does seem a little saturated in the pines (which is easy to fix) but that color was pretty close to how the river appeared. The Animas River has different personalities, during the seasons, due to snow melt, and flow rates. Perhaps this is a case where the green color in the water isn’t appealing to the viewer and a shift in hue would help.
@Patrick_Campbell I thought the ice in the lower left helped balance the bottom but like the crop much better!
Thank you all very much for the feedback! This has been very helpful.
