The Karoo

[Ken Watkins]

One of the bleakest and most spectacular landscapes in South Africa, this was taken in Karoo National Park on 28th April 2012 on the Nuweveld 4x4 trail

The sun was shining in the distance:bg3:

EOS 1D MkIII

78-200mm MkII at 95mm

F7.1, ISO 400, 1/500

[PhilCook]

Looks an awful lot like the regionhs 20klms north of me known as the Flinders Ranges., 'cept we don't have animals that would like to east ya ....hehehehe.....beauty in rugged terrain and wonderful wide open spaces. Any thoughts on cropping a little more off the top to make for a wider aspect and help to emphasize even more the wide open spaces ?

[Jay Gould]

Agree with Phil on all counts! Very nice.

[Charissa]

Another vote for a bit off the top. Rest is super. Great shot.

[Vivaldo Damilano]

Hey Ken, great vista and setting. Great looking place for landscape photography TFS:cheers:

[Ken Watkins]

Thanks everybody, I can see what you mean , this is full frame.

[Morkel Erasmus]

Such a lovely display of light and good use of layering. I didn't feel you brought as much out of the file as you could have.
In this repost I dodged shadows and midtones in the FG a bit - it can still look dark but needed to be opened up a touch.
I also ran a multiplied luminosity layer on the BG mountains and sky, and then also a layer of Nik Tonal Contrast on everything but the shaded FG.
Lastly I burned the highlights in the BG mountains and sky some more.
WDYT?? :bg3:

[Jay Gould]

Morkel, fantastic RP! On my crummy monitor it seems the is a hint of grain in the clouds like noise.

[Morkel Erasmus]

Morkel, fantastic RP! On my crummy monitor it seems the is a hint of grain in the clouds like noise.

Thanks mate. I worked on the web-sized JPG, and besides that the area was very bright, which 'hides' noise...darkening it as much as I did might have brought it out. The RAW file should be fine given the techs Ken posted :t3.

BTW I got your mail...the answer will take some time to formulate so that you can get value from it...plus I am preparing to leave for Zimbabwe on Saturday...but given you "extended timeline" it seems I have some time to respond :w3

[Jay Gould]

Lot's of time: Do it right; do it once!! Definitely want to include time with you and the others in this sojourn.

[Ken Watkins]

Morkel,

Thanks for the repost, the detail in the sky has been brought out much better, but I do find that the Nik filters certainly can add "noise".

[Robert Amoruso]

Morkel did what I was going to suggest.

Nik Color Efex Pro, Tonal Contrast and Detail Enhancer don't add noise. By there nature, they enhance what is there. Noise reduction needs to be attended to at the start of the workflow especially when contrast/detail enhancing corrections are to be made later.