This is one of the formations in Zion national Park. I visit here often. It never really struck me until my last visit when I was leaving in the sunlight was hitting the top of the high canyon wall. It looks very good in color by felt black and white my be more dramatic and tried a conversion. I also tried to light and the trees and foliage at the bottom of the canyon. I hope you enjoy. Any recommendations are welcome.
Good job, Gordon. Zion lends itself to both color and B&W. You caught some good dramatic light here. Moving ahead and to the right might have eliminated the road and bush in the LRC though, my guess, that would put you at a different, less advantageous, height.
this is a great vista but i wonder how it would look if you gave the land some more attention? lighten and give some more contrast maybe.
Cheers
Martyn
That's something I personally wondered and wrestled with myself. I lightened the trees but I wonder if I should lighten them more for more contrast? Or is there another part that could use more work? I'm open to ideas and suggestions.
Gordon, I hope you dont mind but i was struggling to explain my thoughts so I have created a rework of your image so it will be easier to explain (if you do not want me to do this I apologize, let me know and i will remove the post)
Now I only had the low res file to work with so its not very subtle but its the best i could do with a small file
1) create a mask so i excluded the sky from any alterations
2) add gradient mask with black on left white on right to give us full range of tones
3) adjusted levels, moved black point in a bit and lightened slightly the midtones
4) unsharp mask, amount 32% radius about 50-60 pixels i think
5) tweak the midpoint in curves again to brighten slightly
6) working on just the sky, add curves layer and select increase contrast, i was planning on reducing this effect but it looked best at 100%
Thats your lot, i hope you dont think i have ruined your pic
greswolde wrote:
Gordon, I hope you dont mind but i was struggling to explain my thoughts so I have created a rework of your image so it will be easier to explain (if you do not want me to do this I apologize, let me know and i will remove the post)
I am perfectly happy to have other people work on my pictures. As we all know, picture is worth a thousand words and what you have done explains to me what you see as potential a lot more then a description would. I think it's great to see this comparison and would be curious to see what other people think. I will also go back and take a look at the picture and see what I can do with the larger file.
