Exposed for the ground

Now, this one is a great candidate for a three - four stop GND. It would have brought down the value of the sky to be well within the films capabilities. (Good exposure on the foreground.) It's not that far off. You can still see the red in the sky. (I'm assuming that you used a 2 stop GND on this image, but if you didn't, a two stop would be all that you would have needed.) Basically bring the value of the sky down two stops from where it is now.

It is a beautiful area. I can't tell for sure, but I think the main reason this one worked out so much better than your other two is the fact that you seem to be on top of a hill in this photo, where the other two photos seem to be further down a hill or in a valley. You're closer to the subject and you picked up a little more sunlight in the foreground...light that is blocked by the hill in the other shots. There is less contrast in this shot between the foreground and the sunset than there is in your other shots, and that allowed you to capture the light in the foreground AND sunset...it's a nice mixture. The high contrast in the other shots prohibits the balance that you found in this shot. If you exposed for the ground in the other shots, the sunset would probably be all washed out.

LOL! I just put this one up as an example for the thread. Wasn't expecting to find comments over here. In case you're still looking:

 

J. Scott - Honestly, I don't remember if that shot had the GND on it or not. I kept popping it on and off trying to see if it was doing anything, and didn't take notes. :(

 

Phil - You're right that I was farther up the hill for this shot. I hadn't thought about that making a difference. Unfortunately, the higher ground is all on the quarry's property, and I'm not willing to get arrested for a sunset picture. :)

 

Thanks for the comments,

Thats a really beautiful sky! I was looking at this image and thinking. cropping up to just about the tip of the weat would give the sky rein over this image. I like it either way good stuff! more please!

I like this one a lot too. I was thinking that if you cropped the blown out portion of the sky, just down to where the pink starts, it might not be so harsh on the eyes. There's something about prints that are a lot longer than tall that apeals to me.

Don't know if you have Photoshop, but if you do, I would recommend using the "curves" image adjustment to pick up some more detail (see example above). Nice shot..:)