Beckoning Canyon

[Urbanflyer]

Another Death Valley location from 2016

Beckoning Canyon--Death Valley--2016 by urbanflyer, on Flickr

[Wavelength]

Excellent image

[Manfred M]

Lovely image Judith. It would have been nice if the light had been just a touch softer.

If this were my image, I would burn down the sky and bright streak of the path a touch to take the edge off the harshness just a bit.

[Urbanflyer]

Lovely image Judith. It would have been nice if the light had been just a touch softer.

If this were my image, I would burn down the sky and bright streak of the path a touch to take the edge off the harshness just a bit.

Thanks for your comment. My question is this. The light was harsh and I have burned it down some. Your rendition burns it down more. I also replaced the sky which was virtually white. I am not hung up on the idea of making changes to get a better image. What constitutes going too far? I suppose it is all the choice of the photographer, but as a judge, you have to make the decisions in a show or competition.

[DanK]

What constitutes going too far?

What matters is the product, not how you got there. No one knows the latter unless you tell them. I too noticed the issue that Manfred was responding to: the brightest areas in your version are the least interesting parts of the image, but that's where the eye goes because of the contrast with the rest of the photo.

I would do another edit as well. The rock faces are the most interesting parts, I think, but they are fairly low in detail and contrast. As a very quick and dirty edit (I'm avoiding a deadline), I added texture, clarity, and contrast to the two rock faces. That yielded the version below. Again, it's just a crude edit, but I think it's enough to show the direction I'm suggesting.

[Urbanflyer]

I can see the value in the contrast, texture and clarity adjustments. Here is my mental dilemma. It was the brightness of the light on the path which is the beckoning. So I expect the eye to go there first and then be led into the canyon. Perhaps I am letting my memories make too much of an impact at the expense of the overall image.

[DanK]

I see your point. For me, anyway, it didn't work; the bright path lured my eye downward. Maybe that's just me. I wonder if something like gradually darkening the path, rather than darkening the whole thing, would work.

[Urbanflyer]

Thanks, Dan and Manfred, for a useful discussion

[DanK]

Hmm. If the bright path is the focus, what about cropping a lot off the top, making the little dark spot more if the focus.


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[Manfred M]

Thanks for your comment. My question is this. The light was harsh and I have burned it down some. Your rendition burns it down more. I also replaced the sky which was virtually white. I am not hung up on the idea of making changes to get a better image. What constitutes going too far? I suppose it is all the choice of the photographer, but as a judge, you have to make the decisions in a show or competition.

Judith - what I generally do is to make an image more interesting to look at.

Part of what drives my direction is when I started being a serious printer a few years ago. The dynamic range of prints, especially prints done on fine art rag papers, is quite low versus what we see on our computer screens. In order to get a strong print, one has to reduce the highlights and bring up shadow areas by some 2-1/2 stops so that they will print well. The human visual system is most sensitive to the mid-tone values.

Bringing things into that range, while maintaining good dynamic range ends up producing images that are far more interesting visually.

Dan has given a pretty good description of my thought process as well. I want people to explore the whole image and to find interesting material along the path I try to get them to follow.

This is a bit of trial and error and once you figure out what you want people to see, it becomes fairly easy to know how far you can push.

Once I started doing that, I found that all of my images got stronger because I revealed parts of the i

[Urbanflyer]

Judith - what I generally do is to make an image more interesting to look at.

Part of what drives my direction is when I started being a serious printer a few years ago. The dynamic range of prints, especially prints done on fine art rag papers, is quite low versus what we see on our computer screens. In order to get a strong print, one has to reduce the highlights and bring up shadow areas by some 2-1/2 stops so that they will print well. The human visual system is most sensitive to the mid-tone values.

Bringing things into that range, while maintaining good dynamic range ends up producing images that are far more interesting visually.

Dan has given a pretty good description of my thought process as well. I want people to explore the whole image and to find interesting material along the path I try to get them to follow.

This is a bit of trial and error and once you figure out what you want people to see, it becomes fairly easy to know how far you can push.

Once I started doing that, I found that all of my images got stronger because I revealed parts of the i

Thanks for those insights. I have not yet got into printing tho that is in my future. BTW I have been working to learn how to use curves more extensively. That has been a good addition to my knowledge base.

[Urbanflyer]

Hmm. If the bright path is the focus, what about cropping a lot off the top, making the little dark spot more if the focus.


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Interesting thought. That kind of crop puts the brightest spot in the center and does change what draws the eye. Not what I want but something to tuck away for another time. Thanks for taking the time to comment!

[Dave Humphries]

Hi Judith,

I'd try a subtle (1/3 stop) vignette to address the issue of 'too bright at edge of frame'.

On my uncal monitor, I prefer your original brightness of the ground strip, Manfred's quick dimmed version I find a bit too 'grey' and has a bright halo at edges, but I would enhance the rock faces as Dan suggests.

Good (subtle) job on sky, I wouldn't have guessed it had been swapped out if you hadn't said.

Cheers, Dave

[joebranko]

I like Dan's comments relating to the " product not the process. I also like the texture he added to the rock faces,

[Urbanflyer]

Hi Judith,

I'd try a subtle (1/3 stop) vignette to address the issue of 'too bright at edge of frame'.

On my uncal monitor, I prefer your original brightness of the ground strip, Manfred's quick dimmed version I find a bit too 'grey' and has a bright halo at edges, but I would enhance the rock faces as Dan suggests.

Good (subtle) job on sky, I wouldn't have guessed it had been swapped out if you hadn't said.

Cheers, Dave

Thanks for taking time to comment. The Photoshop sky replacement tool is amazing!