Orange River Gorge

[Elmar Venter]

This picture presents the Orange River Gorge in the Northern Cape of South Africa. All advice will be much appreciated.

Canon EOS 350D
17-40 mm lens @ 17mm
ISO 100
f22
6s

[Dave Mills]

Hi Elmar, good exposure with nice detail in the rock walls. The very bright area on the left seems to be pulling my eye. By using a graduated neutral density filter on the sky half of the image that might have toned down the bright area and also brought out more detail in the sky.

[Robert Amoruso]

Elmer,

All the excellent rock detail in the FG and MG begs for local contrast enhancement so here goes.

I would suggest decreasing the bright area on the left as Dave mentioned.

USM on BG copy at 20/50/0
Shadow/Highlight at 25/25/30 shadows and +15 on midtone contrast.

LCE here at my tutorial: www.birdphotographers.net/forums/showthread.php?t=20434.

[Nick Palmieri]

Nice composition, I think the re-post really helps pull some details out of the rocks and pull your eyes along the gorge to the sunset. I have a question regarding the halo on top of the mountain range...I hope one of the moderators can respond to??? Is that a result from the glow of the sun? digital photography? PP? Its been bugging me in some of my own images...and I notice one here...

[Elmar Venter]

Thank you very much for all comments and suggestions. Thanks Robert for the repost.

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hi Elmar,
Excellent advice above and VG Repost by Robert. Nick the halo can be from a few sources.....shadow highlight is one as can layers adjustments and even sharpening. Many possible culprits. As the sky is very bright.....not quite sure in this case as to me it looks over exposed there.

[Kobus Tollig]

Great shot well done on this. Roberts version makes it pop nicely