An early morning into Zion after a rare snow fall overnight. I’ve been waiting for (1) snow in the main canyon; (2) clear blue skies following the snow fall; (3) good reflected light at sunrise. Got all three elements earlier this week.
What technical feedback would you like if any?
I’m struggling with the tonal ranges in the sky. I don’t really want to drop a sky in. Tonal ranges were created by some cloudiness in the east. After taking an extended series of images of the same comp…this one is most even. Would like feedback on tonality of sky very specifically. Should I leave it alone, replace sky or other?
What artistic feedback would you like if any?
Any welcome.
Any pertinent technical details:
Sony A7RII/G Master 16-35@ 24/f13 1/30th iso 100
You may only download this image to demonstrate post-processing techniques.
Hi George,
I love how crisp this image looks. I really like the composition with the upside down V in the foreground leading your eye towards the peak and the symmetry between the top half and bottom half is spot on. I don’t find the tones in the sky distracting at all. Something small I did notice was the tree on the left being slightly cut off. Other than that it’s a great image.
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Great compostion! I know exactly where that was taken. When I was there a year ago my Canon 24-70 f2.8 II lens fell out of my photo vest into the Virgin River. And I didn’t get a shot anywhere as good as yours! My only nit is that the sky seems too dark in relation to the brightness of the red rock. It seems a bit un natural.
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George,
A gorgeous scene and reflection. The dusting of snow just tops this off too, as does the early light on the peaks. You hit wonderful conditions as you mentioned.
I would agree with Tony about the sky. It’s just unnaturally dark. Now I think we’ve all witnessed those storm conditions where it’s very dark to the east (or west depending on time of day…) and then the sun breaks through… Some of the best and most dramatic light happens. If that was the case here, I would think the color wouldn’t be blue like this. Looks to me like clear blue-bird skies and given the sun is still present, the blue is just too dark. At least for me. And it sounds like you’re struggling with it too.
A fairly easy method that might help a little would be using a b&w layer in PS using the luminosity blending mode. This allows you do adjust the brightness values of the various colors, without changing their color value. You can then bump up the blue and cyan. And there’s a side benefit of this too as you would also raise the luminosity of the snow and reflection - without messing with the warmth of the lit peaks.
Agree with Joel on the crispness. This is simply a wonderful capture from Zion and I hope you can come to a good call on the sky.
Lon
Thanks Lon…very helpful. Will give it a shot.
Thanks all (@Lon_Overacker @Tony_Siciliano @Joel_Febbraro) for the recommendations and feedback. Revised version - sky lightened and corresponding shadows at bottom. thx again.
Thanks for taking the time George. Much better, IMHO. The sky looks more like it might during one of those breaking light conditions; a little more gray and a bit lighter.
Lon
Wow, this one is really tough for me to offer any helpful critique. Both the original and report are stunning IMHO. My two contrasting opinions: To a casual viewer or a customer, the original with the darker sky really makes the golden mountains JUMP off the page, which is great. The repost offers a more realistic iteration but it loses some of it’s punch. For me, it would come down to whether you’re going to offer this image for sale or not - in my experience, buyers almost always seem to like a little extra punch.
I very much like the composition a lot, but the feel the darks are a bit blocked. The snow helps preserve text to some degree, but there still some very dark parts of the far bank and in the foreground water’s edge that seem a bit heavy. The tree silhouette works, but sort of wondering if there’s more texture in the shadows to uncover.
@Tony_Kuyper thanks Tony. I did try and preserve some of the shadow on the bank. The mid ground as well but pushed that section as much as I could. I have many other exposures of the same comp so maybe I will experiment with blending those areas in with more detail. Thanks again.
