I spotted this odd little plateau up there earlier on our first morning at Badlands NP, but the light was too flat to make for a compelling picture. Then the sun started breaking through the clouds and even that subtle change made the colors look different. I lined up the diagonal of the nearest ridge so it would almost be like a staircase leading to that green little paradise.
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Hope the composition and the amount of sky works here - you can crop endlessly in this location and find something interesting.
Technical Details
Tripod
Lr for a 16:10 crop and some work to basically flatten the tonal range - not a lot of highlight or shadow recovery was necessary. Some texture, sharpening & nr. A radial filter to accentuate the light on the plateau, in the clouds there too. Then into Ps for a lot of work with masks as stencils to paint through with 50% dodge and burn layers to add dimension to the rock faces. Sometimes a zone mask got it, sometimes color and sometimes luminosity. I also ran a clarity action and confined it to the mid-tones using a luminosity mask. Ran a dehaze action and confined it to the sky.
Wonderful image, Kris. I like you you composed it with those diagonals. That little oasis at the top is such a nice surprise too. No nits here, this is excellent.
What an intriguing landscape. One expects the green pastures to be in a drainage, not at the top of a plateau! The composition works well for me, the proportions feel fine.
Thanks @David_Bostock & @Bonnie_Lampley - this is one of my favorites so far. We had pretty dismal sunsets and rises the whole time so I’ve had to think beyond color and drama and concentrate on mystery, small scenes and maybe black and white, although I haven’t begun sorting through the images I will probably take to a monochrome end.
This is surprising and really grabs its share of attention! I have yet to start climbing the curve for tonal processing that you have mastered. Would be interesting to see a before and after.
Thanks @Diane_Miller - I was lucky to have that little break in the clouds. I can’t say I’ve mastered anything in Ps, but the TK8 panel does make a lot of “impossible” things possible. It’s the precision that knocks me out. I just keep watching tutorials on YouTube and going through the training videos I purchased with the panel to remind myself of what’s possible. Forgetting what tools you have is as bad as not knowing how to use them.
Just so happens I have a before shot ready from an accidental export. Here’s how it went out of Lightroom -
Excellent comparison – thanks! You brought out the light very well. I actually think I prefer the composition of the original, with more base of the hills leading the eye up the slope. I would consider a gradient burn there, though.
Your edits and composition have turned this image into something that has subtle vibrance and is quite pleasing to the eye. The grassy area draws my into the scene and the color of the sky provides some reference for pulling those warm tones out. Awesome…Jim
Thanks @Diane_Miller & @Jim_Zablotny - glad you liked it and took the time to chime in. I have another more expansive view of this same scene, Diane, so I’ll post that one when I’m done with it and see if you like it better. It includes more of the bottom of the rocky hills.
