I captured this image of Skyline Arch early morning as I was heading to another trail-head. The clouds behind the arch caused me to brake and pull over. I went looking for a foreground, and I found this juniper tree mimicking an arch. I shot two images, exposing for the clouds, and another the foreground. I just reprocessed this image in Lightroom trying some of the new tools and wanted some feed-back, since I am considering printing it.
EDIT
Thanks for looking and any comments!
Wade
Hey Wade,
I really love the thought process behind this photo. I think the photo would have been perfect if you backed up a bit and gave the juniper tree a little bit of breathing room on the left hand side. I also think some smoothing (noise reduction?) was applied a bit too much on the arch/rocks in the back? Other then that, I really enjoy this image and like the processing you’ve done in the sky.
Cheers!
Wade,
Great find on the juniper - I can certainly see the mimicking; if anything the shape/layout of the old weathered tree kinda mimics the landscape in general.
I like this a lot and think the sky/clouds are fabulous. The landscape is a little flat in comparison (obviously due to diffused light) But I’m not sure there’s anything you can do differently. This is certainly worthy of printing. The foreground juniper makes for a great foreground element.
Not sure if it’s me and if I’m seeing anything… but is there some chromatic aberration along the rounded sandstone on the left as it interacts with the sky? A kind of magenta line? Hard to tell at these sizes though.
Lon
Thanks for the replies. They were really helpful… to consider another image I had in my library. The edited image is from a slightly different vantage, and a little wider focal length. The space on the left of the original image bothered me a little too, especially if I were to do a canvas wrap. Comparing the new image, leaves the other a bit truncated, but somehow more simplified. The sky is almost identical (obviously) at least. So the big question is … Which do you prefer?
