zion Zion Side Canyon 2

Comments and cold hard cash appreciated...

Steven: I think there's too much dynamic range here. Use of a graduated ND filter could have reduced the brightness in the top part of the image and allowed more exposure in the rocks. I would also crop it so that the tree reflection in the bottom left corner was eliminated.

Thanks for the two cents cold hard cash. That puts me just $999,999,98 short of my goal. :)

 

A thought about the dynamic range issue. The photo holds detail in all but the deep corner of the large fallen rock and the thin shadow lines on the smaller rocks above and to its right. I think that there is no way to extract detail in those areas in a single exposure even if an ND filter was used. One challenge I see in attempting to brighten the rocks is the sunlit stones above the shadows on the left.

 

I think that this photo might benefit from a judicious use of the 'high dynamic range' technique of multiple exposures. Perhaps as much as 1/2 a stop's worth of light in the shadows could be gained. Much more and the reflections might be brighter than the sources.

 

As to the crop, I think your suggestion works. I like the resultant isolation of the one tree being reflected.

 

Thanks,

 

Steve