Hello, This is my first post at NPN after joining about a week ago.
This image was taken recently in Death Valley, my first time at this amazing place. I attended a Small Scenes workshop that David Kingham, Jennifer Renwick, and Sarah Marino conducted. The workshop pretty much blew my mind, opening my eyes to opportunities for small scenes. Wow! So although many of you are probably familiar with this very scene, it is one of my first attempts to isolate a small scene. Thank you for your feedback.
I feel like the massiveness and weight of the rocks really comes through somehow, and yet there are some graceful curves and lines that I normally wouldnāt associate with āmassivenessā. Wondering what you all think of this composition and muted colors.
Pertinent technical details or techniques:
Nikon D750.
200mm, f/10 at 1/20 sec on a tripod, ISO 500
Photo taken about 8am
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Hey Mark,
Yea, those were some great folks to learn landscape photography from. Grand landscape are wellā¦grand, but some the āstoryā of those image gets lost with so many aspects of the image. Micro landscape hopefully, zoom into the scene and make the viewer understand what you are trying to convey.
I hope you donāt mind, but edited the image to bring our more contrast and color. Of course, it is my interpretation of the scene. You maybe wanted to keep the image more high key and soft. I also cropped the image, because for me, the foreground hill was a little distracting; primarily because of the dominance of the gray soil/rock. Again just a personnel preference.
Cheers,
Ken
Welcome aboard and really fine first post. It is working for as posted, but with color, all a matter of personal taste and preference. This has a great abstract look to it, with the lines, shapes and color. Look forward to seeing more of your work and reading your input for others. Great start.
So glad to see you posting here Mark, and thank you for the kind words
I like the composition and it feels fairly balanced, personally I would take a little off the bottom so the darker area doesnāt hold as much weight
Like Harley said, color is personal preference, but I feel like this image has quite a bit of green cast to it. I think a little tweak to the white balance will really help out the colors. For an example I took this into Photoshop and made a color balance and selective color adjustment, hereās the tif if you want to look at the adjustment layers. Badlands almost always benefit from adding a bit of red, Sarah actually taught me that some time ago.
Ken, Harley, and David, Thanks for taking a look and replying. It is amazing how similar yet different Kenās and Davidās edits are of the originalā¦more red and yet different. I hadnāt noticed the green cast, but when looking at both your edits, it is plain to see (Iām embarrassed to say)! Thanks for showing me other possibilities. Iām going to go back and take another shot at editing!
First off welcome to NPN, Mark. This is a beautiful first post and I think you did a fantastic job of isolating this scene from the grand landscape with the 200 mm. A lot of color is subjective, but I do like what @David_Kingham has done with a slight rework. I think it accentuates the graceful lines and colors in this image. I hope to see more of your posts and comments in the future.
Hi @Mark_Muller, welcome to NPN. I think itās a beautiful intimate shot. I love the lines of the composition, i think that how @David_Kingham reprocessed the image works well. Thanks for sharing.
Nice work. I like what @Ken_Henke did with the colors. I feel that DV is one place where going wild with colors is reasonable because of its nature. Whether shooting dunes or badlands, the colors are often exaggerated here. Here is another crop suggestion that makes the composition more straightforward. For some reason I think of breeching whales with this image. More specifically I think of Gregory Peck thrusting his lance repeatedly and yelling " From hellās heart I stab at thee"
Yea, Mark, Iām glad you are seeing that possibly the image has more of a green cast than you wanted. I am always leery of suggesting color changes because of the variability of devices/monitors others are using. Any color change suggestions I make are based on a well calibrated monitor. However, I calibrate primarily for prints and not necessary for web viewing. And obviously anyone else viewing photos are using different devices. Just wanted you to be aware of this color accuracy situation in case you ever get frustrated you are not seeing what others may be suggesting. Although I have never been to that location you were shooting from, I suspect your image may actually reflect the natural colors? How you want to represent those colors is always the artistās choice, but there is no doubt, warmer colors for ābadlandā soil tends to appeal more.
Regardless, you are off to a good start with this image!
Cheers!
Thanks Ken. As I recall this was in a little bit of shadow, which might explain the somewhat muted colors. I do like the warmer, more colorful renditions here. Thanks again.
Ed, Massimo, and Igorā¦thanks very much for your comments. Iām looking forward to seeing your work and learning more. Igor, thanks for your crop suggestion, which eliminates those black lines at the top of the original. I love your association of this with whales!
Welcome to NPN, Mark. So glad you enjoyed your workshop and have decided to become part of the family here. I think youāll be very happy you joined. I think your initial concept was fantastic and I like your outcome as well. Iāll trust David on the green cast because Iāve sadly never been to DV. From the crops shown above, I tend to favor Davidās best but I like your less intense coloration/saturation best, but I tend to always prefer that with rockscapes. For me, the more intense saturation tends to distract from the shapes and textures. My suggestion would be to go with Davidās crop suggestion and his chosen color balance, but stay with your more subdued color/saturation scheme. Very successful shot, IMHO.
Iām a little late here, but for sure want to welcome you to NPN! This is a grand first entry - I think this is wonderful image, and excellent interpretation of the geology, shapes, lines, textures, colors, etc. etc. one find in DV.
I think this is wonderful as presented. Of course there is room for āinterpretationā and personal choices and thereās no problem taking an image where you want to take it - or as our good friend of NPN Tony Kuyper has said, āLet the image take you where IT wants to goā¦ā Iāve always liked that one.
I think the color/sat youāve presented is probably the most accurate. Of course you could bump up color/sat/contrast ever so slightly, but again personal choice.
Regarding the darker hump LLC (lower left corner), I think there is enough texture and detail that I think itās germane to the overall composition; especially since those earthy grays repeat along that rounded ridge.
Iām thinking a walrus along the bottom edge - but that requires some imagination.
Thank you Lon and Bill. You both liked the original colors, so that just goes to show the variety of ways we all see images and what is appealing. Iām looking forward to getting to know you and everyone here at NPN. Thanks again.
Welcome, Mark, fro me as well. You surely have gotten your membershipās worth from all of these suggestions. They demonstrate what white balance and color adjustments will do. Of the suggestions, my preference is closer to @David_Kinghamās, but I would lower the saturation on the redās a bit. You have a nice intimate landscape here. Charlotte Gibb is also a master of the intimate landscape. You might want to check out her website and blogs.
