Path to Turret Arch

[Don Lacy]

This image was made on my first day in Moab after checking in at the hotel we headed for Arches for an afternoon shoot which we spent mostly at Balance Rock before heading to the Windows section as the light was fading from the sky. When I showed this image to my wife all I got was its nice not as colorful as your other images which I already knew but I like it anyway after struggling on my scarlet tide series I needed a more peaceful relaxing conversion to work on.
This is a two image blend made with a Canon 6D, 16-35 f/4 IS at 16mm, f/20 at 6s for the foreground and 1.6s for the sky, Manual Mode, Evaluative Metered, ISO 400. tripod

[Don Railton]

Hi Don

The FG is a little dark for me, not by much but i think I would like this a little lighter. I also wish the steps were not visible however not much you can do about that... they do make a nice lead up to the window however. Sometime I think I see a hint of a halo around the large rock LHS, but then on second glance its gone..so, not sure is my definite conclusion...:e3 Its a beautiful sky and composition...

DON

[Diane Miller]

A lovely scene, but I had to try a little tweaking -- hope that's OK. I lowered saturation of reds and skewed the hue a little to the right, then did a Detail Extractor to bring up the FG, which was a little heavy for my tastes. It also darkened the sky a little, which I'd probably mask out. It also brought up some flaws in the sky which I didn't take time to clean up. (It's a good way to check for things like that!) Then added a light darkening gradient at the base.

[Don Railton]

Hi Don,
Def prefer Diane's FG..

DON

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Don lovely colors (specially the reds :w3) and overall good comp , agree with Don about the steps but not much to do !!!
Took the liberty an popped the FG a tad , maybe went a bit overboard .
All was done with TK lumomasks and various blend modes targeting different tonal ranges .

TFS Andreas

[Gerald Kelberg]

I like the underlying composition - including the steps.
But what Andreas has done with his TK 'masterclass' pushes it all the way into the next State!

Looks fantastic!

Gerald

[Don Lacy]

I want to thank everyone who took the time to work on my image, my original conversion was closer to Andreas version but I decided it was to bright and I wanted it to be more realistic to how the scene appeared when I set up for the shot which is unusual for me since thats rarely ever my intent with my images. I also like Diane's version with a more natuaral color pallet so I will probably pull some of the red out of my final edit and brighten the foreground back up. As always thanks for help and guidance.

[Andrew McLachlan]

Hi Don, I like the composition and prefer Diane's repost best. Any chance you captured a few silhouettes later in the evening of the 'window' in the rock?

[Morkel Erasmus]

Nice one Don. I much prefer the lighting/balance of exposure in your OP - looks very natural with that backlit glow.