One of the joys of Death Valley is the never-ending opportunities for exploration. There are not many trails, but you can explore the canyons for a lifetime and never get bored. This canyon is unnamed and credit should go to @Sarah_Marino and @Ron_Coscorrosa for inviting us along to explore this beauty. It was a fun day scrambling up dry falls and finding incredibly interesting patterns in the rock walls, not mention a whole lot of coral fossils!
Specific Feedback Requested
I have reworked this image five times now, every time I felt like something was off, but I think I’m getting closer. I tried to convey the sense of depth here by adding a lot of texture and midtone contrast in the foreground while removing some of the texture and contrast in the background while accentuating the cool to warm effect as well.
Technical Details
Is this a composite: No
15mm very close to the orange layer in the wall to really accentuate it. Focus stacked using Helicon (handheld!). I compressed the original scene to fit in a 4x5 crop because I really don’t like 2x3 in portrait orientation. I think this helped to reduce some of the wide-angle distortion as well to make it a little more life-like. I also pre-processed the Fuji raw files in Dxo PureRAW 2 which does amazing things.
David, the variety of colors in the rocks are amazing. You’ve got a good zig-zag comp especially with the bright orange at the bottom, the subtle blue in the middle and the gentler orange/yellow at the top. Looks like a great place to explore.
The foreground is terrific in both color, detail, and design. The overall composition is great with all the parallel and opposing diagonals. One idea is to make the oranges in the back wedge to be of equal intensity as the ones in the fg.
Because the foreground is so strong the background feels a bit weak and this is not the type of large landscape where you can do this with (atmospheric conditions). You could make this image more abstract and just make it about the foreground by going to a square format:
Hi David, I would name this unnamed canyon “Vertigo Canyon” as it’s disorienting in a good way.
I think you’ve done a great job processing this. It really comes alive. I have the luck of having a 5K monitor so seeing this in the large version is totally immersive.
I also like what @Igor_Doncov did, however it makes it a completely different image to me. Both are very strong in my opinion.
Oh, very cool geology. Those nodules in the foreground rock (limestone, it looks like) are so interesting. I, too, like the zig-zag compostion. I think Igor hit on something, in that because this is a relatively small scene, the “distant atmospherics” don’t work so well - that light, lower contrast back triangle feels odd to me.
I tried a few things to see what might look better to me. For the back triangle, I raised the exposure and lowered the shadows + darks and actually cooled it a little. Here’s what I thought:
That is a very interesting take @Igor_Doncov, I will certainly consider the cropped version now. As I said, I’ve been struggling with this one because I couldn’t convey the depth of the canyon and it never quite felt right. Thanks for the idea.
Thanks, @David_Bostock, I think it’s disorienting because I was very high up looking down into the canyon, which could also be why I’m not totally happy with it! This image definitely looks better the bigger you can make it, so maybe it would work as a print!
The geology was incredible here @Bonnie_Lampley! It is limestone with iron concretions, but I do not know what the orange stripe is. I agree the background doesn’t quite work, I made it a bit too much atmospheric then intetended. I’ll add some reworks to the original. Thank you!
This is a really wonderful image David and it has a lot going for it. I like the wonderfully vivid colours – especially the orange cooler blue shades near the center. I also really like the zig zag that the others have already mentioned. There is so much wonderful fine detail here that I just want to view it large and really study all of the details everywhere.
In regard to the crops, I like them both. They both create a different image, but both are strong images and I can’t pick a favourite.
Lastly, I wanted to ask you what you meant by “I compressed the original scene to fit in a 4x5 crop because I really don’t like 2x3 in portrait orientation”. Do you mean you used the transform tools or something like that in Photoshop?
There are so many little details in the picture that mess up when I tried to edit it a bit. In the end, I only had to focus on a couple of areas. I took this square as a starting point, but even that original full-length image might work by darkening and processing the top
David, comparing the three versions is a fine lesson in composition. While V2 emphasizes the orange streak and the blue parts, I find it the least interesting of the three (probably because I believe that complexity makes for an image that can be looked at repeatedly). I was thinking that cropping about half of the brighter orange at the top might work, but your dodging of that area has the same effect (reduced eye pull) while maintaining the 5x4 frame, which (of course) makes creating and mounting a print much easier and cheaper. I expect that you’re preference for a 4x5 vs 3x2 relates to displaying images on a standard video screen…it’s well known in the psychology of vision that the visual impact relates to the area that the object occupies. With a standard 16:9 screen a 3x2 vertical occupies less than half the area of a horizontal version, giving the vertical much less visual impact. Oh yeah, that coral is astounding…it looks huge
Fascinating and beautifully captured image David. I think a number of options, all valid, simply because the abstract nature of this natural scene.
I can see what you’re intent was in the original and it works well. I do however like your 2nd rework and like how the warm colors tie the front and back the image together, giving it some depth. The original I that the bg was de-emphasized too much. Maybe the question on the bg triangle is a challenge in luminosity vs. saturation?
I do really like Igor’s square crop - but like I said up front, there are many valid options with this scene.
Fascinating simply because of the geology and ancient history this canyon must reveal. Great job capturing that!
That is correct, I selected the foreground, copy and pasted it, cropped to 4x5 (unchecked delete pixels), then did a free transform on the pasted foreground to squish to my will
@jorma, thanks for suggestion, the added contrast certainly makes the colors pop, but I tend to prefer going a little more on the subdued side.
I don’t think that’s the case for me Mark, I like 4x5 for the aesthetic, even when I see a large print as 2x3 it looks off to me, with some noted exceptions of course!
Agreed, there are uses for each of these crops. If I were to put together a collection of images of Death Valley canyons I would use the full version, if I were to have a collection of intimate scenes of rocks, I’d go with Igor’s version. So I’ll be keeping both!
And thank you @Lon_Overacker! I agree completely. Good to see you back
