Light

[flygning]

Badlands National Park, SD

C&C Please!

 

[[Woodsy]]

Hey

being totally honest, I'm not so keen. I cant help but feel the shot is a tad monotonous. For me the sky needs to hold more interest, though this is obviously out of your control. You have metered off the rocks by the looks of it? As a result, the sky is a tad under exposed. Something that can be solved with an ND Grad filter...

Also the shot needs more lines, which, more importantly, lead to a focal point. At the moment, I don't find anywhere for me eye to rest once it has explored the image, so it feels a bit uneasy.

I don't mean to come across as harsh, so please don't take it personally!

It looks like a good location though, so deffo go back there, and take a little extra time to compose the shots you take

 

[Don Kondra]

Hi Victoria,

Thanks for posting this, it's quite a change from the landscape of the Canadian Prairies I see everyday out the window...

I wonder how it would look to see more of the shadows of the trees in the bottom of the shot and less of the sky?

I'm also big on representing a shot as it "is" but I would compare this shot with another with a "blue" sky And/or B & W...

FYI you have sized the image perfectly for viewing, it just fits on my 17" screen without scrolling, a small but important thing.

Cheers, Don

 

[flygning]

Thanks for the input. The sun was setting behind me (the reason the sky was so dark), so I guess I was going for the illuminated rocks. Unfortunately, this was taken in South Dakota, about 1400 miles from here...A little tough to go back and recompose it

I played around with it in photoshop, but I couldn't really get it to work well in black and white--it just started to look noisy and over processed.
Oh well, just a learning experience for next time. Thanks again for your comments.

 

[Jaymz77]

Ok, so I am really into post processing and found your photo interesting to see what I could do to improve it.. if all possible.. since you allow other to edit your photos, here is what I came up with.. a bit strong I know but when I did it, I instantly loved it..

 

[flygning]

Thanks for your edit. I like how you brought out the colors of the rock, but I'm not really a fan of the black in front.

I know it ends up being a funny size, but I hardly ever print these anyhow and I don't mind funny sizes. Adds a bit of interest to it.

 

[kundalini]

I just recently added the Badlands to my 'must go to' places to photograph. In fact, there was a, oh I don't remember what they're called, but a thing on one of the morning shows today about the Badlands which only emphasized the desire. Unfortunately, there are several locations in front. One of those places is near you, Sedona. I want to get out there this year, but have a couple of sugeries planned and it all depends on how rehab goes.

I like your shot, but think some tweaking may bring out the colors that are faintly shown in the hills. I'm not very skilled with PS but I'm sure it can be done. I think Jaymz77 went over the top, but some subtle shifts should bring out a beaut. Two things that are lacking IMO are shadows and contrast on the hills.

Otherwise, nice shot.

 

[flygning]

Kundalini- I agree, I think it needs just a bit of tweaking, but I'm only just starting to realize the possibilities the photoshop brings. I'm a little overwhelmed with it in fact.

Quite honestly, I've lived in AZ for 13 years and I have driven through Sedona once, and never even stepped foot out of the car. I'm hoping to spend some time this summer up there since there are a lot of great hikes I want to do.