I read somewhere that the best time to shoot Horseshoe Bend was between 6-8 AM since it faces east. Personally, I'd have to strongly disagree, as the shadows / mixed lighting were very problematic as they cut across the scene. Another hour of so (guessing 9:30-10:00) would have been better, but in order to make Hoover Dam (via GC) by twilight, I had a schedule to keep so I had to bail before 8:30.
Turn lemons into lemonade — photoshop in a silhouette of you and the wife sticking up above the shadow line waving.
Wondering out loud how time of year would affect lighting angle there. The 6-8 advice may be based on later in the year when the sun is higher relative to the equator / horizon at that time of day. OTOH, light level would be low but "golden" from that spot just after the sun set over the horizon in the background in the evening so maybe the 6-8 advice was for PM not AM. If so it would qualify as one of those Homer Simpson "D'oh" moments...
Time of year ... same thing my wife said, and is likely a concern.
I double-checked ... i.e. not PM, as then it is backlit, but as with any lighting scenario ... lemons & lemonade are good friends as to how you might interpret / subjectively proceed.
I was "on point" for about 2 hours watching & waiting. Like so many things, the experience transcends the image ... but I'm still pretty pleased, given the harsh shadow to contend with.
Backlit all afternoon, but after the sun sets no longer; it becomes frontally lit again, by the "golden hour" skylight. It only lasts a few minutes and it's not too bright but it's uniform and lovely light.
Have you tried a blended version? Assuming you bracketed shots, you should be able to bring out add'l detail in the shadow areas relatively easily. Even if not, I've had some success blending 2 versions of the same file and compositing them with masks to get the desired result. Of course, it depends on how much the 'shadow' version needs to be pushed to produce the desired level of detail...too much and a lot of noise can be revealed.
All that said, I like this one well enough as presented. Though I've not been to that location, it strikes me as a very realistic interpretation of colors in the SW in general.
I always wrestle with my SW images because I've always had the sense that everything lit directly by the sun is almost blindingly bright, and while the shadows are distinct, they also seem 'brighter' than encountered in many places.
+1 @ it is a different light in the SW. I've been around the world numerous times, from Alaska to Australia, from Amazon to Arabia but never seen light like that. Its like light on steroids. I guess it overcompensates for Seattle.
It wasn't necessarily the DR that was a bother ... it was the placement of the shadow that was the bummer.
That file is sitting somewhere on an old hard drive that resides in a box somewhere (last year's move) ... might be a bit before it resurfaces (hence the quick look for the archive here).
) - Paul
