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View Full Version : A Mighty Fish River Canyon Vista



Morkel Erasmus
03-14-2010, 04:27 PM
I have been revisiting some of my shots from our trip to (and through - on foot) the Fish River Canyon in Namibia. I cannot begin to put into words what a paradise the whole country of Namibia is for landscape photography. The quality of the light, the open spaces with very little human elements in them, the colour tones of the sand, grass and rocks. It's all there. I am planning to go on a proper road trip through the country some time next year.

This is a stitched image created from no less than 7 vertically-composed images of the vista over the Canyon from the Hobas view point where you start the hike. It is also (can you believe it) only one exposure with selective levels adjustments. The HDR will follow soon :)

Would love to have your thoughts here. I like how this composition gives you some scale and takes you nicely into the depths of the canyon. We were very lucky that it was overcast and slightly drizzling on this day as normally one gets very harsh shadows and contrasts during this time of day.

Techs:
Canon 1000D with 18-55mm IS @ 18mm
f16 @ ISO-100

I felt it a crime to show such a large stitch at less than 1024 pixels wide so I had to save at about 52 quality setting...the full size image is 7183 x 3856 pixels :)

Myer Bornstein
03-14-2010, 05:16 PM
what a beautiful scenic love to see the whole picture

Bob Miller
03-14-2010, 06:35 PM
HI Morkel....I have been there and you really do the place justice with this image. You have a good vantage point and I like the detail throughout. I hope I can do such a nice image someday with a litle help from the cloud gods. You might try lowering either the brightness or saturation of the foreground rocks IMHO

Robert Amoruso
03-15-2010, 06:22 PM
I already told you that I liked this composition before. The stitching really brought out the level of detail needed here.

Tonality-wise this looks great. I don't see the reason an HDR is needed.

Dave Mills
03-15-2010, 07:54 PM
Hi Morkel, Agree with Robert on the comp and tonality. Theoretically HDR was supposed to be a tool to even out difficult lighting situations. I also do not see a need for HDR since there is no wide degree of lighting variation within the image.

Morkel Erasmus
03-15-2010, 11:16 PM
thanks for the comments everyone...the reason I consider HDR (and have already done it ;)) is that it enhances detail in the canyon immensely. I've not done a full HDR, but combined a tonemapped image with this one. Will post it sometime. I also quite like how this one came out.

Robert - the previous shot I posted of this view was basically the top half of this shot plus a third cut off the RHS :)

Roman Kurywczak
03-16-2010, 03:29 PM
Hey Morkel,
Oh no.....not an HDR.....this one rocks!!! Really shows off the depth and really nice scale. I'll save the judgement on the HDR....looking forward to it!

Dennis "Curly" Buchner
03-16-2010, 08:49 PM
Very nicely done Morkel, kinda reminds me of Deadhorse Point in Moab

Morkel Erasmus
03-17-2010, 03:23 AM
thanks for the feedback Roman & Curly...

D. Robert Franz
03-19-2010, 07:47 AM
Love this scene looks so much like Utah....

Morkel Erasmus
03-19-2010, 10:48 AM
thanks for viewing and commenting Dale...

Jay Gould
02-21-2012, 08:05 AM
Mate, I missed this the first time around; very glad I am seeing this the second time around. Fantastic!!

The only thing I would perhaps do is a very very slight CCW.

Morkel Erasmus
02-21-2012, 09:45 AM
thanks mate!
:bg3: