Assignment: Light and Shadow - Grand Canyon

[Indranil Sircar]

During one of my trips to Grand Canyon, I had a chance to see dramatic changes in the light after a late afternoon thunderstorm. This image came out as one of my favorites. As the sun broke through the clouds, it created this light and shadow effect on O'Neill Butte. For this crop, I decided to keep a larger portion of the sky just to add to the dramatic perspective. Does this work? Settings were -

@18mm 1/50 sec, f/3.5 ISO: 100, tripod, circular polarizer

All C&C will be appreciated.

~ Indranil

[Alfred Forns]

Hi Indranil

It is a dramatic scene .. nature can be powerful !!!

Framing wise might want to see the horizon line a little lower toward the upper third, would show a little more of the dramatic sky and fall within the rule of thirds !!

PS wise would tone down the highlights at the bottom, could multiply the light tones for adding a little texture. The mid section can increase the contrast, not sure if you tone down that area? The sky looks dramatic as presented but can always tweak !!!

Difficult capture with the great tonal range presented !!! Hope Roman drops by with his expertise !!!

[Desmond Chan]

What a scene !! Like those clouds a lot !!! Wonder what it would look like in B&W :)

Agree with Al re the mid-section. Not sure why you used f3.5, I think you could have stopped down more, too, and since you used a tripod.

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hi Indranil,
The composition looks good although the bottom shadow and silhoette on the left do detract a bit....... but that is easily fixed with a crop. As Desmond mentioned a higher f-stop for more DOF would have helped....but since a good portion of the middle ground is in shadows.....doesn't affect the image that much but do keep it in mind for next time out. I do believe you can improve this with a bit of PP'ing tweaks though.......there does appear to be a blue cast in the sky and the MG seems a bit muddy. Lowering the blue saturation in the sky and boosting the contrast a bit in the MG may add more depth. You may also want to try shadow highlights first and see what that does to the overall scene or even a reverse S-curve (check Robert's tutorial in the landscape forum sticky) to lower the contrast on the original.....then proceed with the normal PP'ing. This was some tough light.... with the clear band on the horizon, so you handled it pretty well. All in all it was composed nicely...... just try doing a few tweaks to see if you can take it up a notch!

[Indranil Sircar]

Al, Desmond, Roman, thanks for the feedback. Appreciate a lot. I can visualize what you are suggesting and here is a version with few of the changes...

[Desmond Chan]

Here's one mainly adjusted to cut through the haze in the mid-section primarily using high-pass a couple of times and then Levels to further enhance the contrast. Finished with more sharpening. I didn't do anything to the blown highlights in the sky. Nor has I changed the composition.

But, Indranil, you were there, it's your photo and the final call is yours.

[Indranil Sircar]

Desmond, thanks for showing this. It has come out beautifully and I like it. The colors in the distant canyon face is typically red; not sure if it would be purplish in the shadow. I think taking care of the blown highlights of the sky should take of the overall image. Also, on the f3.5, I had tough time with the exposure with light/shadow shifting every minute. I had bracketed few shots, I will try and a HDR and see how it looks like.

[Alfred Forns]

Excellent repost Desmond ... working from the jpeg !!!!!!

[Gus Cobos]

Hi Indranil,
I like the capture, this is one impressive place. I like the play between light and shadows. I agree with the techs. mentioned and the good advise given...your repost is a big improvement, and Desmond's repost, cutting the haze out puts it over the top...good show...looking forward to your next one...:cool:

[Jackie Schuknecht]

Indranil, such a dramatic image. Desmond has brought out the true beauty of the picture.

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hi Indranil,
I think you were headed in the right direction. Desmonds re-post deaturated the MG and sky too much......the canyon is that red! I took your OP and first cropped to eliminate entire bottom distractions. I then selected the sky and desaturated the blues. I proceeded to lightened the darker MG with a levels layer....not much.....very close to yours. I then added a few points in selective color blacks (+5%) and then did a LCE using unsharp mask with settings of 20/40/0 to give the final pop. Let me know what you think.

[Indranil Sircar]

Hi Roman, this is terrific! This is how it was and you got it balanced all across. I liked your approach. Thanks a lot for sharing.