One more from Grand Canyon

[Lyle Gruby]

I shot this a little earlier in the same afternoon as the previous shots. All C&C welcome.

Techs:
D3s
16-36 @ 22mm
ISO 200
f/16
Blend of 4 exposures

[Vivaldo Damilano]

Hi Lyle, this is a stunning scene, like the layered hills and good work blending exposures. I prefer this image to your previous one, love the composition in this shot. Personally I think the image is lacking a little punch, would add a little mid tone contrast.

[Lyle Gruby]

Thanks Vivaldo. I think you're absolutely right. Here's a quick reprocessed version. 131464

[Andrew McLachlan]

Hi Lyle, repost works much better for me with the added contrast. The layers in the canyon are stunning...I hope to get there one day.

[dankearl]

Repost much better, you really hit the canyon at an opportune time!

[Vivaldo Damilano]

Repost looks a lot better, nicely done!

[Morkel Erasmus]

Lovely composition and light. Something still feels amiss for me, even in the repost, in terms of exposure and colour balance. Details also seem very smooth.
Lyle, would you mind sending me a RAW file via Dropbox so I can have a crack at it?

[Anette Mossbacher]

Hi Lyle,

what a great scene of the big canyon. I agree with Morkel on this. Your image has not a color profile embedded! You might want to assign sRGB to it! Here a great post from Steve K. http://www.birdphotographers.net/forums/showthread.php/62351-Saving-for-Web-in-PS



Have a great weekend

Ciao Anette

[Morkel Erasmus]

Lyle, thanks for the RAW files.
Here's my take (did a VERY quick job, 15 minutes max).
What do you think? Sent you back a higher-quality version...
:t3

[Anette Mossbacher]

That looks totally different Morkel. I like your RP very much :bg3:

[Lyle Gruby]

Thanks for taking the time Morkel. I re-worked it again also. I definitely like your less garish version. Sometimes I need to be reined in again. I suppose you used the gradient tool like I've seen you post about before? I had been blending by hand via the paintbrush, but that can get very tedious and time consuming. I tried the gradient tool myself to blend these together and came out with a little different version. I downplayed the reds and brightened up the image a little as a whole. WDYT?131615

[Morkel Erasmus]

That looks good too, Lyle. I'd think having the canyon brightness somewhere between the 2 would be ideal.

Though I often use the gradient tool, there is a much more efficient way to blend which also avoids selection bleeding and halos. It's called "luminosity masks" - you can find plenty pre-written actions and helpful tutorials from the original purveyor of this method, Tony Kuyper, over on his website - www.goodlight.us