This is an image that sat mostly unprocessed in my computer for the past 3 years - it was shot at the end of March 2020. It sat there for so long because the raw file was so flat and monotone. I tried editing it soon after I shot it but I couldn’t get anywhere with it and it looked sooo boring!
I took another stab at it last night and did some fairly heavy, at least for me, dodging and burning and I think that I’m now more happy with it but I’d love to hear what you guys think.
This is a wonderful image and one worth the effort of processing IMHO.
I like the perspective and the composition as well as the details that canyons like this usually have to offer.
I do feel that the section in the FG on the right to be a little brighter than it should be, it doesn’t seem to blend in with the BG, I realize it should be prominent but not too prominent, if that makes sense.
The veins in the canyon walls seem to be just a tad flat to me but that could be just personal taste or the difference in monitors, and of course those veins could be that flat looking in person as well, I’ve never visited this place so I don’t really know.
Also, when I sampled the color of the snow I found it to be fairly blue (compared to white), that also shows up in the canyon walls and the grass in the FG.
Anyway, this is just my personal take on it and to me, this is certainly worth the effort!
In the edit below, I used curves to lower the exposure on the right, then I used color balance to add a slight amount of yellow and a slight amount of red overall and finally painted in a very slight amount of saturation on the veins in the walls.
BTW, I like the title, you must be a Clint Eastwood fan?
It’s a fine image and I’m only trying to help you get it to where you want it to be
An image worth working on with the nice S-curve through the foreground and beautiful landscape. I am getting a sense of depth, especially with the warmer colors in the foreground and the cool colors in the background sky. You may have done or considered this already, but selective sharpening/clarity in the foreground could possibly help create even more depth and help make is less flat/monotone feeling.
Thank you @Merv and @DeanRoyer for your helpful and in depth comments! I appreciate it more than you think!
I took them to heart and did a few more tweaks to the image and I think that it’s definitely an improvement (the reworked image is posted above).
I agree with others that the rework looks great, Tom, and does breath extra life into the image.
When I first saw this, and hovered my mouse over the image, the lower, fleeting, NPN banner with file name, size, etc covered the forground grass and the image looked great. However when the grass then became visible I didn’t get the same feeling from the scene.
Overall, I think I prefer it without that bit of foreground, possibly because there seems to be a bit much of a contrast between the warm looking close-up grass and a wonderfully detailed, but cold feeling, subject of geologic grandeur beyond. Or maybe it’s just me. Cheers.
@Phil_G , I appreciate your feedback and especially your comment about the grass on the bottom. You are right in that without it there, the image has a completely different feel to it. I tried cropping it and the canyon feels bigger and more expansive and I like that. What I don’t like however is that the image feels cut off at the bottom. Ideally, I should have taken another shot where I had moved forward a bit and excluded the grass altogether but unfortunately I didn’t. I have another similar frame of the canyon without the foreground grass I don’t think the rest of the image is as strong. Still I think I will process it to see how it turns out.
