Borrego Badlands

[Jeffrey Sipress]

On my recent spring desert color excursion, I made this image in the Anza Borrego Desert in southern California. Early light on a maze of canyons and color.

Still trying to find some birds out there, but I'm not good at that yet.

Canon 1DsIII, 70-200 2.8L

http://machinearts.com/fredphotos/badlands5.jpg

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hi Jeffrey,
I really like what you did compositionally here. You concentrated on the buttes and IMO selected very carefully not to clip edges of them........especially at the top. You might have oversharpened and did a little much with SH??? I've reposted one that is a little more punched up..........didn't touch any sharpening.........but also toned down. Let me know what you think!
Roman

[Jeffrey Sipress]

Hi Roman,

Sorry, but that is not what I had in mind. Appreciate your comments.

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hi Jeffrey,
That's OK that you didn't like the changes............especially since I haven't been to the area. If you could, please post more of the camera specs to help others who come to the forum to learn.
Roman

[Alfred Forns]

Hi Jeffrey

As presented it seems a bit light but difficult to actually say without seeing the scene in person I would try accentuating the shadows a bit for definition and giving more of a 3D effect It is a very appealing composition !!!! Good luck with the birds I'm sure they will start turning out for you !!!!

[Jeffrey Sipress]

Thanks, guys. I'm a pretty experienced landscaper, and have definite visions on how I want my images to look. A lot gets lost in the jpeg, as always. With this scene, as the first direct light tipped the ridges at 6:30AM, it added to the nice soft glow light that was already present since dawn. That is a low contrast, even, soft illumination that is easy to expose and is quite different from the typical 'pump up the contrast' type of thinking that is so popular today. I got plenty of that as the daylight washed out everything within a half hour of this moment. I waited the entire sunny day until the last light became soft again, and then resumed photographing. I printed this 16 x 24 and it is stunning. Of course, if you saw the print, you would not peep about the jpeg except to say what a shame!. If you care to see what light I usually seek, visit my website.

www.jeffreysipress.com

Thanks for all your comments.

[Robert Amoruso]

Jeffrey,

I visited your website - many great looking images. I certainly understand your objective here and you succeeded well. I agree that the composition work great. I have no doubt this looks great printed and that is how I always process my RAW to Tiff files - for printing. As you mentioned, sometimes the translation to JPEG just does not capture it. Nice work.

As an aside: Have you ever tried Local Contrast Enhancement using USM. I downloaded your image and gave it a try at A = 20, R = 30 and T = 4. This resulted in an ever so minor increase in contrast w/o going overboard and dumping the soft light look. A, R, and T can be varied to taste. Figured I mention it if it is not something you have tried. I find I use it a lot on my landscape images to add varying degrees of punch. Just another tool in the toolbox that I find useful on occasion.

[Jeffrey Sipress]

Hello Robert,

Thanks for the kind comments. I have not yet tried Local Contrast Enhancement using USM. I assume it is a menu item in Photoshop. I will be trying it tonight!

Now, if I could only get one bird image as good as any of yours......

[Robert Amoruso]

Hello Robert,

Thanks for the kind comments. I have not yet tried Local Contrast Enhancement using USM. I assume it is a menu item in Photoshop. I will be trying it tonight!

Now, if I could only get one bird image as good as any of yours......

Jeffrey,

Under the Filter Menu, Unsharp Mask and try the settings I mentioned on a background copy.

Thanks for your compliment on my bird images.