Sabino Canyon is close to where I live and the more I explore it, the better I like it. The main area is a saguaro-studded canyon of the Catalina Mountains. This is an image from spring when the yellow brittlebush was blooming after our wetter than normal winter.
Addendum: Based on the comments about the amount of detail in this image, it’s maybe worth mentioning that this is a result of the technique in this this blog post. My 18-300mm zoom is not particularly sharp, but this method makes jpegs and prints look surprisingly good.
What artistic feedback would you like if any?
This image was taken near sunset. Overall the lighting was lighter, but in the print, it seemed that it needed to be darker in order for the yellow to stand out. So I ended up darkening the digital version as well. Hope that works for you.
You may only download this image to demonstrate post-processing techniques.
This is absolutely gorgeous light Tony, and a perfect subject for this lighting situation. i like how you have echoes of the yellow vegetation in the distant ridges as you move to the background. your processing of light and shadow here is masterful, I really like the blue tones in the topmost shadow areas. While this is truly gorgeous as presented, my only suggestion would be to clone away that shadowed cactus in the extreme LRC, it is a minor eye magnet.
Tony, I really love the subtle light and shadows you captured with this scene. The colors are processed perfectly to emphasize that lighting. This provides me great inspiration to visit this canyon later this year as I will be in the area for a few weeks in November.
Beautiful work!
This is exquisite, Tony. The delicate lighting and subtle warm color highlight the repeating hillsides beautifully. Composition and processing look spot-on to me - no suggestions.
Wow! The lighting in this scene is magical and has created a wonderful sense of depth, Tony. The cacti scattered around the scene let my eye wander around the image and savor all the details. Beautifully done.
I love the light! I also enjoyed the warm area in the foreground transitioning to cooler hues in the background. Often people shoot the other way around. This is refreshing
Absolutely breathtaking, Tony. Composition and processing are exquisite, as is normal for you. I find two things the most appealing - light & contrast (that’s 1 thing), and the subtle differences in the colors of the ground cover. The image also has a great sense of depth and, as others have mentioned, the warm to cool variation is nice as well.
I changed my workflow several years back and slowly got away from using your Lum. Masks. I really didn’t realize how much I missed them until fairly recently when viewing some of Sean Bagshaw’s work. I downloaded your new version and am slowly trying to re-learn the techniques. It has changed SO MUCH since version 1 or 2, when I first started using it. Can’t wait until I become proficient again.
This is outstanding Tony! The desert foothills are so photogenic and so beautiful in Sabino Canyon.
I love how you crafted the almost intimate composition with the succeeding ridges, each capturing a diminishing amount of light. Just beautiful.
Not sure I would qualify this as a nit pick, but my only thought for change would be to raise the luminosity in the LRC. Not so much because I’m looking for detail, but more so to match a little closer to the other somewhat darker areas of the scene - like up top or the rocky knob in the UL quadrant. Said more simply, maybe dodging that corner ever so slightly.
Subtle, sombre tones and hues and a strong composition make for a very beautiful image, Tony. I especially like the textural detail right across the frame.
This is a wonderfully balanced and subtly handled scene, Tony. The color does look nice and rich, so I think the darkening worked well for you. Have you considered dodging back up the highlights on the saguaros? I feel like I’m struggling a bit to pick them out, like they’re blending into the background. Maybe with a bit of dodging they could stand out more as a distinct element of the image - particularly the ones in the lower-left where the layers of lit ridges kind of meld together.
