My first visit to the Imperial Canyon overlook. Very spectacular. I took quite a few photos but much wider than this. When processing, I decided that the monument would be my focus. I cropped in about 60%. I tried to create more visual separation with masks in LR so the monument would be more prominent . Now I wished I had zoomed more. It was 11:00AM so the light was not great.
Next time, early morning and a tripod.
Any comments will be gratefully accepted.
Specific Feedback Requested
Any suggestions on technique from camera set up to LR processing will be helpful.
Cropped to 8x10 but wondered if 9x16 would be better.
Technical Details
Canon R6, Canon 24-105mm, f/10, ISO 640, 1/500sec, 26mm.
LR using masks and lots of sliders.
I know how you feel, seeing this landscape for the first time, or any time! This one captures the emotional reaction to the space. My first reaction is that the atmospheric perspective is key to the feeling of depth, and that it is unusual because it darkens the distance, beyond the dappled cloud shadows on the canyon. Instead of making the horizon more luminous, it is darker, making it look almost smokey, which might be part of the process of separating the ridges and the “monument”. My eye goes to the lighter parts of the image, which includes the ridge in the foreground, which takes my eye away from the “monument” (spire?). The spire still merges a little more than I want to see. Maybe darken the ridge behind it, along with a shift toward blue to separate the two? Consider shifting the color of the distant ridges toward blue and darkening the green patch behind the spire. There are so many compositions available in the canyon, that any aspect ratio can work, depending on what you are drawn to. The light is fine. I don’t like thinking that light is good or bad; I like to think there are opportunities in every light if we are paying attention. One more thing: the scene is distant, you are at the wide end of your zoom lens, so you could have used a lower ISO, a wider aperture, and a faster shutter. Tripods are always good, except when you don’t have time. But, why not return in the early morning and photograph it again? It will be different, but just as good. I will return, someday!
I’ve never been to the Grand Canyon but have seen pictures. With that being said I really like your composition and wherever this particular view is of it, Charlie. I like all the distant layers of cliffs and the foreground almost looks like ancient ruins. Nicely captured!
Thanks. Good advise. Actually, I had taken some of the blue out of the BG but, will re look at it. It was, in fact smokey, and I thought the dehaze added too much blue. Back to moving the sliders back and forth. Thanks again, very much appreciated.
I like the capture of overlapping layers that is one of the mesmerizing scenes at the Grand Canyon. I feel that this image may have been processed quite a bit. There is a lack of richness in detail somehow and the colors seem off in areas. Would love to see the unprocessed raw file you started with.
I notice quite a few things that are off here right off the bat when I look at this. Firstly, the highlights are very blown out, and the shadows are too open. It has a very overdone HDR look to it because of this. This is also give you a strange haloing effect between the layers and ruining your separation. Also, the white balance is really warm, there is hardly any color separation between the tone of the highlights and the shadows, both are very yellow/magenta. I think you need to try processing this one again and be lighter handed, don’t raise the exposure so much, don’t push the highlights at all, don’t open the shadows so much, try to set that white balance in a spot where you have both warm and cool tones in the image, just try to leave it alone mostly and only do what is necessary. The composition is pretty nice here so I do feel it is worth working on again.
Thanks to both of you. I would be glad to download the RAW file and have anyone else process it. Would I upload as a PNG or TIFF?
Eric, thanks. I will retry. I have been accused of over processing in the past and just am never sure when to stop. Your detailed critique is very helpful.
I don’t think you can upload anything but a jpg file. I meant that you would convert the unprocessed raw file to jpg and upload it. The less compression the better.
Charlie: I’ve been to the North Rim twice and would go back in a heartbeat. I like what you’ve done with the crop and the processing, especially considering the light you were working with. >=))>
OK, a quick disclaimer: I have never been to the GC!
That said, I agree with Bill, after seeing the light you had to work with, I think you did doggone good with the cropping and processing!!
Regarding the crop, I would like to see just a bit more room above the distant peaks. It seems really crowded there, and that can be distracting.
I do think the spire kind of got lost in the final version, so maybe try to keep it more prominent (yeah, like that’s easy while you’re making all these changes, huh? )
Like Eric said, I think you have a really cool composition and it’s worth playing around some more with this. And don’t be afraid to let some of the blacks stay in there.
Neat image!!!
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