Balanced Rock

[Jeff Parker]

Canon 5D, 28-135mm@33, 1/40sec, f/13, ISO 200
Another Big Bend shot from last week. The light was tough with the yucca in shadow. Should I try some fill flash? Or maybe that fancy HDR that I keep hearing about:)

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hey Jeff,
Nicely composed using the rock to frame the mountain but the strong side light won't allow you to capture the full range. IMO....the flash will help....it would make the yucca a bit more prominant but be careful not to over flash it! an HDR is probably the only way to capture the scenes entire tonal range......I don't do them but plan on at least experimenting with them soon.

[Dave Mills]

Hi Jeff, I showed another way to render the comp because I felt that there was too much included in the image. IMO the most important area of the image is the rocks framing the distant mountains. The foreground yucca becomes a dominant factor(in a crowded area) and takes away from the whole presentation. Simple, but another way of looking at it...

[Lance Warley]

Beautiful image, Jeff.

I like Dave's comp, because it highlights the rock as the fg and gives a sense of the vast space all the way to the bg mountains.

[Robert Amoruso]

Jeff,

Dave simplified it just as I would have suggested. In the OP, the dark shadows and harsh light just overtake the image.