Luminous Landscape Forum
Equipment & Techniques => Landscape & Nature Photography => Topic started by: polaris-14 on July 10, 2015, 04:28:39 am
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I spent the week of 7/4 in Arizona and I was able to take some photos at the Grand Canyon NP. This is probably one of my favorite from the NP, 70mm handheld at ISO 800 - f/11 - 1/80secs. This is at Lipan Point at the South Rim, the initial plan was to wait for sunset, a plan that we had to can because of this thunderstorm. I thought Black & White gave the most out of this picture, here is what I have achieved using Lightroom. Can you give me some critiques how I can process the image better?
Thanks!
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Nice like this.
Don't overprocess!
Thierry
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You might open the shadows a tiny bit to show a little more detail, but it would be very easy to overdo it and spoil the threatening mood.
I would leave it alone. That's a fine capture of a great moment!
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Really well seen.
I would lighten the dominant frame-right virga since it's such a heavy presence.
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I wouldn't make any changes. Looks great! :)
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Really well seen.
I would lighten the dominant frame-right virga since it's such a heavy presence.
Yes, it is beautiful without changes, and I learned a new word "virga"... very cool.
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This is only an attempt (maybe overdone) of lighten up the lighter mid-tones with a selective use of the curves in Nikon Capture NX2 (BTW, the shot is underexposed, the histogram doesn't reach the right edge). I've also removed some dust spots (four or five).
Ciao
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This is only an attempt (maybe overdone) of lighten up the lighter mid-tones with a selective use of the curves in Nikon Capture NX2 (BTW, the shot is underexposed, the histogram doesn't reach the right edge). I've also removed some dust spots (four or five).
I think the foreground is very much improved, but it's a bit too light in the background now, particularly towards the left.
Jeremy
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The second version is a bit stronger, I like it better.
Upon zooming in the image, the rocks could do with a tad more sharpening, the textures look soft. Not sure if there is haze/mist, or some camera shake?
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Thanks everyone!
I took your comments into consideration and here's a revision to that first image.
You might open the shadows a tiny bit to show a little more detail, but it would be very easy to overdo it and spoil the threatening mood.
This is only an attempt (maybe overdone) of lighten up the lighter mid-tones with a selective use of the curves in Nikon Capture NX2 (BTW, the shot is underexposed, the histogram doesn't reach the right edge). I've also removed some dust spots (four or five).
I think the foreground is very much improved, but it's a bit too light in the background now, particularly towards the left.
These are very helpful. The shot is underexposed on purpose, as mentioned by Eric above, to create that threatening mood. When you see thunderstorm of that size approaching, I'd imagine you would often have a tunneled vision. I am trying to recreate that in this image. But you guys are right, the image was initially slightly underexposed.
Upon zooming in the image, the rocks could do with a tad more sharpening, the textures look soft. Not sure if there is haze/mist, or some camera shake?
The canyon had been very hazy the entire day so that could be one of the reason. I also shot this at f/11 on the Nikon 70-200mm, it might've been sharper at f/8 or even f/5.6.
Again, I realy appreciate the comments; keep them coming, I'd love to hear if there is anything else I could do.
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Nitpicking: I'd like to see one about half-way between your original post and the new version, which is light enough to lose some of the somber mood (which I like).
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Beautiful shot, I'd play with some B&W recipes if you are into that kind of thing but it's very nice as-is.