Amazing Light...

[Arthur Morris]

Golden light on low mountains, Fort Craig, NM


Image copyright 2008: Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART





Canon 70-200 mm f/4 L IS lens on a Mongoose M3.5 with the EOS-1D MIII. ISO 400. Evaluative metering +1 2/3 stops: 1/100 sec. at f/9.





I was headed to Bosque in the dark with my car pool/photo partner Kristen Westlake and, for the first time in more than several hundred trips to the refuge from Socorro, I missed not only the exit but missed two exits. Perhaps I was distracted… We headed back north and were soon confronted with the beautiful scene above so we simply pulled onto the shoulder of I-25, crossed the interstate on foot, and began making images. This is a three frame pano with the sky cropped from the top.





As I haad planned to do at the moment of capture, I removed some buildings and a bunch of utility poles.





Don't be shy; all comments welcome.

[David Kennedy]

Artie,
I do wonder if the image isn't a touch too yellow? (Just a hair too much, mind you.) Also, I would be curious to see a version from before you eliminated the man-made structures. You showed some screen-shots in your latest bulletin, and I wonder if they didn't actually add something to the image: a sense of scale. Food for thought.

[Robert Amoruso]

Artie,

I agree with David on the yellow. I reposted a gray point balanced image here. Using a threshold adjustment layer and a layer at 50% gray, I located three points that were as close to neutral as I was going to get. There was no neutral pixel in this image (i.e. same RGB values). Using a levels adjustment and the gray point dropper, I tried clicking on each of the points to remove the color cast. Each yield about the same results.

After living in TX for five years in the late 80's early 90's and spending a significant amount of time photographing in the SW and especially NM, I know that the light there is magical. I am basing my color correction on the blue sky looking more natural here. Artie, You probably want to be somewhere between your version and my version.

Composition wise I am OK with it and removing the buildings. I believe I know where this is.

[Stephen Stephen]

Artie I like the expanse of desert that you original portrays. That being said I also like Robert's colour adjusted version. It definitely brings out more details, particularly in the mountains. I'd love to see this in a 3 foot width size.

[Arthur Morris]

Thanks all. Esp. Robert. The light was insanely yellow. As for the buildings, you can keep em!