Valley of the Gods

[Mack Hicks]

On annual trip to the 4 Corners area, first year with a DSLR
We were coming back from Monument Valley where the wind was howling. The sun was setting as we were driving by Valley of the Gods and I loved the golden light on the red rocks. This trip marked a first for me, I was more interested in the trip and seeing and photographing the country, than hurrying to get somewhere, just enjoyed where I was. Photography in general and bird photography in particular, is help me learn patience.


D200, 18-200 VR, 105 mm
f/5.3, 1/50, ISO 100

[Morkel Erasmus]

very nice scene and light captured here Mack! a must-see place that's for sure.

there are some great textures and details in this scene that can be brought out with some clever techniques (see Robert Amoruso's training threads at the top of this forum.

I did a very quick work-up, hope you don't mind.

I just applied a reverse S-curve, very slight shadows/highlights, USM 25% 40px to pop contrast and desaturated some of the magentas and reds that became overpronounced during this process. finally I applied noise reduction to the sky and some slight sharpening (0.3px) to the foreground.

It looks slightly overdone as I watch it now but as I said I worked very quickly and my point was just to show you there are ways to cut through the haze apparent in your photo.

many will make the case for a stronger foreground anchor here to accentuate the depth and vastness of the place, and I too think it would have lifted this to another level.

[Jay Gould]

Hi Mack, hopefully there is no right or wrong!

With all of the straight lines in the structures I felt they should appear straight in the image and that with all of those long straight lines a stronger narrower pano might work best. I also played with levels and curves.

What do you think?

[Mack Hicks]

Very nice Jay. I am still trying to learn PP. My skills are rudimentary.

[Judd Patterson]

Mack, it's a gorgeous scene. Since you had a lens that could get you even closer, I would have gone out to 200mm and focused tighter on the awesome rocks glowing red in the sunset. The clouds in this image just don't add too much for me (especially the rather flat clouds at the top of the image). I like the straightening that Jay did as well...the original does seem to lean to the right a bit. Nice work, and I'm glad that photography is helping you to slow down and enjoy things more!

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hi Mack,
Love that part of the country and glad you were there to enjoy the wonderful sunset.
A few things......to me it appears a bit soft and it's probably due to DOF or hand held?.....so you may want to keep this in mind for the future. I actually think the sky had potential......as I always recommend....the split ND would have helped there......now you may want to try combining 2 raw files (1 for sky, 1 for FG).....and merge them......but I do realize the above mentioned PP skills so may want to wait on that. If you are going to venture into the great landscape plunge.....a very sturdy tripod and head.....as well as pushing the ISO a bit (in the howling wind).....will definitely help.

[Robert Amoruso]

Mack,

I will agree with Judd's and Roman's comments above.