Natural Rock House C&C

[LittleMike]

Ok so I wouldn't want to live in it, but I could see it making a good shelter for Native Americans here several hundred years ago. I know the lighting is a bit harsh, but I had no choice for this one. I was there right at sunrise, but a large outcropping of rocks to the east blocked sunlight for over an hour. I was hoping to get it when the light was still soft I'll be heading out there earlier this Saturday to capture it just before sunrise for a 24 hour photo contest I'll be doing.

C&C!

Canon 5dmkII w/24-105L lens
f/13
1/50 sec
ISO-100
Shot in RAW (I'm a new RAW shooter)

Thanks in advance!

 

[LittleMike]

Anyone?

 

[Whootsinator]

That's a badass structure! Was it really THAT saturated though? If so, that's amazing. If not, don't oversaturate quite so much.

 

[pbelarge]

That is a unique structure for sure. Next time you may want to have a CP on the lens. The CP works best at about 90degrees perpendicular to the sun which might work out very well for you. I would possible take the aperture to 8 or 11.

 

[LarryD]

It is an interesting structure...

I don't see good composition here though... the structure is way to the right with a lot of dead space on the left. The upper corners are a little dark but most software can fix that (or you can leave it, it's common with wide lenses)

I think that you should be a bit more to your left, move the structure more into the frame, and use fill flash to lighten up the interior.. perhaps getting down low and shooting up could be a dramatic look too..

Take a few dozen shots at different angles and filling the frame with the subject........ Think of this one more as a portrait of the structure rather than a part of a larger landscape........

 

[LittleMike]

Thanks for the help guys. When I head back out there Saturday I'll try to play around a little more with the composition and fill flash. Great idea about it being more of a portrait of the structure, instead of part of a larger landscape! I hadn't though about that.

As far as saturation goes, it is actually extremely close to natural. The southern Utah sandstone is known for being EXTREMELY red. You should have seen how the neighboring rocks looked right as the sun was coming up. I'll see if I can get a picture or two of them next time just as an example.

I tried a few shots with a CPL, but given the fact that the photo was so wide (24mm), and I was shooting northwest, the right half of the sky was a very deep blue, while the left half faded quickly to where it hardly looked like I had a filter on.