Last Light at False Kiva

[bretedge]

I've hiked to False Kiva in Canyonlands NP at least a couple dozen times.  Earlier this year all the conditions I'd visualized in the image in my mind finally came together and I was able to create this photograph.  On the hike down I ran into a French photographer on his way out who boldly proclaimed "Zee light ees gone. You are too late." I beg to differ.

Thanks for having a look.   

[Paulo Bizarro]

Good image.

[thierrylegros396]

HDR without the drawbacks

[francois]

"Zee light" might have been gone but this is one of the best FK shot I've seen lately!

[bretedge]

HDR without the drawbacks

This is actually a single exposure - no HDR or blended exposures.  I used an off-camera flash to open up the shadows in the ruin a little bit and processed the image in Lightroom 4, using shadow and highlight recovery tools to fine tune the tonal balance. 

[sdwilsonsct]

Nice composition and treatment.

[churly]

I like this as well. Nice work.

If you don't mind, I would be interested in where you put the flash.  I think I can tell but the shadows obviously have multiple sources.

On the upper left the border between the sky and the dark upper wall has a narrow bright rim.  Is this a down-sampling issue, a sharpening issue, a jpeg issue or something else?  I ask because I seem to be fighting these rims all the time in borders between dark and light areas and it seems they arise from multiple causes.