Dead Horse Point

[John Blumenkamp]

This was captured early last summer at Dead Horse State Park in southern Utah... the sky was not ideal, so I worked on composing with the horizon toward the top of the frame as shown. Any comments and suggestions are appreciated.

40D w/ 10-22mm @ 20mm
1/30 f/8 iso100

Thanks,
John

[Robert Amoruso]

John,

The right idea on the sky. Two nice leading lines in the image - road and river. Good play of light and dark combined with good details in the shadows. Having the FG dropping off accentuates the grandness of the canyon.

[John Blumenkamp]

Thanks Robert... now looking at the post, I wonder if the foreground/shadows are a little too dark? Not much light in that portion of the landscape, so maybe it's fine as is.

[Michael Pancier]

John, I was there last Friday and I shot from the same spot. ;-) I would lighten up the foreground a tad here.

I used a 5 image HDR to help with the contrast and used NDG on the sky as well. This is one of the most amazing canyons I've seen.

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hey John,
Been here a bunch of times too! Great spot! I tried lightening the FG with a bit of a screen blend......I liked it around 12% opacity......but the change was very subtle. Since the old VS film guy in me hasn't quite subsided......I like the deeper contrast here between the light and shadow areas......so I would leave it as presented. Very nicely done......and way to minimize an uninteresting sky.

[Fred Bourque]

Just my opion, but I tend to agree with you about a little more light in the front of the pic. Its not a deal breaker though. Great capture...

[Dennis "Curly" Buchner]

Wow what a cool place, nice job