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Camperjim wrote:
The original capture was about as bad as it gets..
Plain, blue sky and way, way too much of it
Centered composition
Horrid, mid day lighting
Not much going for the composition. No leading lines or center of attention
No drama, no mood, no emphasis
There is a point where you should not take the picture and where post processing is not going to make up for all of the issues. This one is close to it.
I rarely like B&W and in this case do not see it as a fix to the issues. I did a little post processing to try to at least turn the original into a memory shot. This is a very quick fix but at least gives the idea of the direction I would use when processing the original raw file.
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Thanks Jim - agreed about the original, but I disagree about the conversion not addressing some of the issues. But in the end I'm not gonna win any battles at this time of day and in these conditions. Better comp before the shutter was pressed would sure have saved me some pixels, but at the time I swung and fouled it off.
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oldrattler wrote:
I added some contrast & cropped the left side & top.
Thanks for the rework!
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lighthound wrote:
There's the Jim we all know and love. I was starting to think you were getting soft on us Jim! <--- (said with loving affection and sarcasm)
Jeff, it hurts but Jim does point out the many things you had going against you on this shot. I suspect that you were already aware of many of these things based on your OP image and where you went with it. As you already stated, when you're on a vac trip like this you don't always have the luxury of time to plan out and stalk many golden hour locations. You just have to do the best you can with the light you have sometimes. And the plain blue sky goes right along with it. You can't control what mother nature hands us.
With that said, I agree that a 16:9 aspect ratio would work best on this image if you want the larger scene as others have shown. You'll want to loose as much of that sky as possible yet retain a nice composition. I played around with it and that ratio feels like the best option to me for the larger scene. However, I think you idea in your original image makes it much more inviting as long as your ok with loosing all those pixels.
Based on your OP image, I'd say you are heading in the right direction. That's one hell of a lot of missing pixels though. As long as you have the pixels to get your final result that's all that matters right now. As Jim pointed out, a much better composition in camera would have given you something much better to play with.
I know landscapes are fairly new to you but rest assured you are not alone when confronted with a scene like this. I know I struggle with finding a good composition when the entire vista is simply jaw dropping like this place. I suspect that if you had much more time to spend there you would have nailed several shots.
Ahhh... Vacations. Aren't they great!
Oh... And I say yay to your original B&W image with the ideas folks are suggesting.
Dave ...Show more →
Thanks for the comments, Dave! I should have added "mid day sun, no drama and poor in-camera comp" to the title. Yeah, this isn't a case of me trying to show off this shot as much as I am seeing how much lemonade can be squeezed out of lemon. But I'm definitely sitting here with opens ears about everything else!
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ben egbert wrote:
Bald sky's. Heck if it were not for bald sky's I would be finished. I have been to almost every place I want to photograph and the main reason I need to go back is because I had bald sky's, in all my previous images. In fact I just showed one where I used a composite from different places and different years.
What many people do is point the camera at some textured rocks that do not contain sky. That's the picture I will not bother with.
I always take the picture I came for, and if the sky is bald, I work on composition so that the next time I will be in the best position.
Now I understand we can't always get back to a place, especially if very long travel is required. Not much you can do about that. It's the bane of landscaping.
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I love the methods to your madness, Ben! Good food for though as well. If I do get more into the landscape game and visit repeatable spots then I will do just that.
Cheers,
Jeff
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