Cliffs above the Colorado River at sunset, Toroweap, Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona

No HDR - Single Frame on Nikon D2x with split GND Filter.

 

All comments and critiques are welcomed and appreciated.

 

Thanks for looking.

Un gran momento de luz.

Saludos.

Magnificent, again. I love the color, and the way the sunbeams form such a strong convergence into the northeast corner. I wonder, though, if something could be done to bring out the right-hand foreground a bit more? I've attached a quick work-up of this idea, applying changes only to the southeastern foreground ledge: boosting of lightness and a/b saturation, followed by a local contrast increase (unsharp mask at 20% /40 px / 0 T), and a lightness channel sharpening (100 / 0.5 / 0), all done in LAB color space.

(Edit: Looking at what I posted, I think I forgot to mask off the last unsharp mask, therefore applying it to the whole image. Everything else was done selectively though.)

John:

 

Thanks for your comment & efforts. I appreciate the time you took on this. Initially I liked your approach. When I'm in production mode, batch processing hundreds of images from a trip, I really don't spend too much time thinking or worrying about specific areas like that, an keep the majority of my work on global levels. That's not to say I don't do any area specific adjustments, mind you, but I just don't put in the time of effort to "image" every area of a photo to its fullest potential.

 

So I looked at what you did, and I liked, and I looked some more, and I compared, and in the end, even though I initially liked what you did, think I'll keep the image as it is.

 

Here's my reasoning: Feel your eye pattern movement; in my version where the LRC is a bit darker, your eye moves smoothly up river toward the URC. In your image, where the LRC is brighter, it's just bright enough to catch my attention, (and you know the physics of our eyes and brightness in photos, yes?) which causes my eye (path) to slip down toward that brightened area, and has to be pulled back into the scene to continue the journey up river. It's like driving on a straight road, but all of the sudden the road dips toward the shoulder, and you feel quick pull on your steering wheel, and you then have to exert a bit f effort to get your car back up on to the flat part of the road again.

 

Still, I really do appreciate your suggestion, and I can certainly see initially why it would seem to be an improvement. I'll continue to dwell on the matter, and how knows,, next time I have to master image this for a print, maybe I'll add a pinch of brightness.

 

Maybe some others will chime in and say you're spot on, and I'm totally full of it. (wouldn't surprise me, my wife says that about me all the time.) We'll see...

 

Cheers & Thanks again.

Hmm. Yeah, I can see what you mean, Gary. What I was going for was something to make the southeast corner contribute a bit more to the already-strong sense of depth that one gets in looking into the canyon. Perhaps the opposite approach of darkening the ledge, so that its tone blends more into that of the canyon bottom? I don't know. This is an interesting discussion, but I don't feel the need to armchair quarterback your work so much. The image is quite strong as it is.

Thank you. I love the photographic process without HDR.

Would come-out greatly on a large print for wall hanging. Nice picture.

Drawing with Light indeed! Love those beams and the illumination. I prefer the original version myself. I'm headed for a partial GC private raft trip later this month... can't wait!

Stunning light.

 

Simon