Mesa Arch Sunrise

[Roger Clark]

Sunrise at Mesa Arch in Canyonlands is a moving experience. As the sun rises, the sunlight reflects of the bottom of the cliffs illuminating the bottom of the arch. This double reflection amplifies the red color, making it very intense. If the sunrise itself is quite red, like this morning, the effect is magnified more. Time of year is also important. This image was made one October morning. earlier in the year, the sun rises behind the La Sal Mountains and floods the view with bright sunlight. In June, the sun rises to the left and the distant cliffs block some of the light illuminating the cliffs below the arch.

The challenge in photographing this classic view is good conditions and getting there before the other photographers! I got there about an hour before sunrise for this image.

Large format camera (4x5 inches), 90 mm f/45, 1/2 second exposure on Fujichrome Velvia film. This is a 2-frame digital mosaic giving the wider panoramic format. Each 4x5 sheet was scanned at 3200 pixel per inch, 16-bit/channel. The merged mosaic is 22,200 x 12,800 pixels, giving a 74 x 42.6 inch print at 300 ppi. The mosaic was assembled with PTGui.

Roger Clark
http://www.clarkvision.com

[Jeffrey Sipress]

WOW, a great job with the LF and the stitch. Classic in every way.

I know it may be difficult to judge from an internet jpg, but those reds are way up there. Wouldn't be surprised if the red channel is clipped. There seems to be detail lost on the left side. I'd say Velvia may be responsible, or photoshop!

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hi Roger,
One of my favorite arches.........Love the composition and job you did stitching! May be a little over the top on the reds as I've been there in Sept., Oct., Jan., and Feb........even with an enhancer.....reds not quite this bright. Overall though......very well done!
Roman

[Roger Clark]

Roman,
I've been there for sunrise many times too, and all seasons for about 20 years. This was the reddest sunrise in my collection. Of course it is velvia, but I did not enhance the colors (beyond what velvia does). I've photographed the sunrise with both digital
and velvia, and no other velvia sunrise matched this one in my collection. The biggest change in those twenty years is in recent years I've never been there alone; but in the early years, I had sunrise to myself.
Roger

[David Kennedy]

Roger,
Like Roman, I wonder if the reds aren't overpowering the rest of the image. Also, I think that the arch and the visible landscape through the arch is far more interesting than the top of the arch and the blue sky. Cropping down to the point where there is no more blue sky (along the left edge) would strengthen the image by stopping wandering eyes.

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hey Roger,
Most of my stuff was shot on VS. Even more red than Velvia...........they were close........but I do understand that light is a funny thing.............different bounces.....produce different results.......my only question to you is......after scan, because I've done it..........did you use the shadow highlight feature??? By default......and I don't know why........it does a +20 color correction and most of the time that puts in too much of a good thing. I've done the crop thing that David is suggesting.......sometimes I like it...sometimes don't. In this case........I would probably leave your sky in.
Roman

[Roger Clark]

Hi Roman,
No I did not use shadow/highlight. I chose to leave the sky in because of the beautiful fine texture the large format shows in the rocks. If I cutout the sky, I would ave to crop that texture out. Besides, I like the impression a really big large format print gives: it's like being there! The texture that the large format gives is, in my opinion, what invites the viewer to explore the entire scene. Unfortunately, that texture can't be seen in the little web image. The full scene is 284 megapixels (1.7 GBytes).

Roger

[Robert Amoruso]

Cool looking image and nice technical work with the stitching and scanning. I would agree a touch of desaturation of the reds are worth investigating.

Composition is right on. I could go either way with the crop David suggested.

[David Kennedy]

...If I cutout the sky, I would ave to crop that texture out. Besides, I like the impression a really big large format print gives...

Roger,
That's a valid point, and upon looking at the image again, I'm inclined to agree with your presentation as it is. One of the reasons I originally suggested cropping from the top was because I think that the sky is a particularly weak color in contrast to the strong colors shining through the arch. If you tinker with the Selective Color command, you might be able to make sky a darker shade of blue. Mind you, not much darker, just a bit to give it some "presence." Obviously, you don't want it to be so strong that it conflicts with the rest of the image, only enough to balance the composition.

Cheers,
David

[Steve Bein]

This is quite nice. Have you been on top of the arch? going from the left and walking to the right, the left side drop is interesting to say the least. It is truly a wonderful place to visit. Getting there for the light definitely is an early job.

[Roger Clark]

This is quite nice. Have you been on top of the arch?

Thanks,
In the dozens of times I've been there, I've never had the desire to go on top of the arch. Besides, when you are on top, you can't see that wonderful view! ;)

Roger

[Michael Pancier]

beautiful and great job on the stitch.

[Ed Cordes]

I love this location. I have to admit this is much redder than the image I made in October 2007. However, that's what makes our passion so much fun - different light every time. You are correct RE the number of people. Last October my wife and I got to the parking lot a t 5:30 AM. She was convinced I was being overly aggressive as Sunrise was about 6:30. Well about 15 minutes after we arrived we saw other headlights coming so we high tailed it to the arch so we could set up at the spot we scouted the day before. There were about 10 photographers by the time the action began.

[Grady Weed]

I personally like the crop as is for the reasons rnclark mentions. WOW is all I could say. It must be spectacular being there. Well presented. The reds are a personal thing, to me.