In the Heart of the Needles

A heart shaped pool of water lingered from earlier rains and became the

centerpiece of this image taken in the Needles of Canyonlands NP.

Vibrant color, Excellent lighting and contrast... the pool reflection in foreground enhances overall beauty of image!!! Well Done!

The colors and striations in the rocks are lovely by themselves, but the reflecting pool just puts this over the top. Bravo!

The reflection makes this great. I am torn about the brightness though. I realize how bright things are out there under a blue sky. Sometimes it is a struggle to decide how much to reproduce the intensity of the brightness. Lee Freidlander did a book on the SW with a bunch of overexposed BW photos to highlight that issue. It worked for him.

I think the overexposure mentioned andrew is a not problem ............ certainly what makes your big step is a reflection aggiungom ..... and I really like the format qudrato of which I am deep estimator also in the picture landscape.

so beautiful work and beautiful pictures.

excuse for my bad English

simone

Andrew- You make a good point. The image does look pretty bright. I tried to reproduce the lighting as best I could, i realize that a couple weeks after the fact isn't the best time. When I took the image I did a quick check to see if the colors, histogram were close. As you can see by the shadows, the sun may have been still a bit too high in the sky to get the richer colors in the FG rocks. But as you probably know, the reflected light in the shadows can be quite brilliant. I may play around with a slightly less exposure and see how it looks. Thanks again for you critical input. Much appreciated.

 

Regards, Harry

Actually, I think your exposure is just fine here. It carries the feeling of the mid- to late-afternoon light well; and I do not see any areas of blown/hot highlights. As has been mentioned, the composition rocks, with the dark rim around the pools of water really being a phenomenal accent. Very nicely seen, captured, and processed, Harry! Cheers! Chris

Sweet shot Harry. What I especially like about this photo is the impact it has even with the sun so high in the sky. Also I look at the image and my reaction after taking it all in is that it's made up of a number of elements that fit nicely and there is nothing extra that shouldn't be there. A place for everything and everything in its place. Nicely done.

I was trying to come up with a useful comment, but all I managed was "cool" :-)

However, in scrolling down my browser window, I notice an interesting panoramic abstract, too, a version of which I've attached. This was obviously a very successful photo outing, Harry: you've posted quite a wealth in the past couple of weeks.

John - I like it- wish I had thought of it myself! It was a great trip for a weeks worth of time. I have a couple that seem to me have some cool lighting, but just haven't gotten around to process the RAW files yet. Soon!

 

Thanks for the idea, I'll think about that more when I shoot reflections.

 

Harry

Harry, here's my take for what it's worth. The comp is awesome, the colors are vivid, the layering provides dimension. As well, it went straight to my favs folder. As far as suggestions, I think you could have better balance by darkening the foreground rock, especially around the pool. I always feel that a scene which is brighter at the bottom appears top heavy. I think you could make a selection of the area with the quick mask tool or a color range selection and then click your levels or curves adjustment layer to create a mask, then darken appropriately. Make sure to change the blend mode of the mask to luminosity so it doesn't strengthen the color or over saturate. If you use color range selection, it will probably grab the middle bright rock on the left. Just paint away that area of the mask. The trick is to not darken the pool itself. Very nice work for sure!!

Mark- Did you write a manual on PS? Wow! My typical way of darkening the area would be: Duplicate the image as a layer, apply, a curve or level adjustment, and erase in varying degrees to reveal the darker rocks? Would that do the same as your method? I can see how a heavier bottom, in this case, would be a good thing!

 

Thnaks for the in depth tutorial. I will get it yet.

 

Harry