Thanks again guys for the compliments and suggestions. If I get the chance maybe I'll post a slightly darker revision of the sky on the forum. I'll be keeping it bright for myself and print though. It just doesnt seem to look right when I drop it down anything more then a tiny bit. I've been studying the works of Floris Van Breugle, Alex Nails, and Jarrod Castaing (all super talented fine art photographers) and I love how they maintain very bright skies when shooting into the sun instead of the dark moody look everyone seems to be going for these days. Obviously I still have some room for improvement, but I have the overall feeling very close to where I want it.
True, this is a very bright image, but I imagine this is how it would have looked to the naked eye at the time. Whether or not you like it, this does look natural in my opinion.
Dang, thanks a bunch guys. Must have a been a pretty slow week on the forums for only a 5 vote win! I'll take it though
Buffalonian wrote:
14mm?
Sorry for the slow reply. Yes it was shot at 14mm.
mariposaland wrote:
Wow! Magnificant image. Super comp. Did you have much lens flare post work to do on this? How many shots did you blend? Home run, Justin!
Thanks a lot Mario. Without covering the sun with my hand, I would have had a couple small green lens flares in the lower half of the image. The 14-24 flare control is sometimes good enough to use without blocking the sun, and you can get a clean image with minimal cloning work. In other cases, it creates huge green semi-circles that are hard to see on the LCD, so it always pays to block the sun. I used my hand to block it for all the foreground/background images, and then took 1 additional exposure bracket for the sky without my hand. In all, I used 6 shots for the foreground focus blend, and 2 shots to get a clean exposure blend of the canyon and sky. Should print pretty huge!
Congratulations on that lovely capture... Moab!!. I was at that very spot in 2009. I waited for a couple of hours before the sun gently sat on the horizon. I just sat there in awe, and it was just one of the best and most relaxing experiences I can recall. I remember that my 17-40 nearly didn't cut it on APS-H body. You really need to go wide there.
I know this spot is an icon, but here in Spain, people aren't very familiar with either this meander or the amazing sandstone arches which are just a few miles away....
Thanks so much for sharing....., you put a smile on my face
I think that your goal to strive for is an excellent way. Light can be so beautiful in all of its forms. Really well done. You nailed the self critique ... the light hitting the bottom curve adds so much to help anchor the scene. The centered sun right over the top works really well, too. Nicely done.
