Liquid Gold

chrismoore

A familiar scene to those who have hiked the narrows, the reflected light from the sandstone cliffs gives a golden reflection to the water and passage beyond. Canon 5DII, 16-35, 1 second f/11, two shot depth of field blend.

eoren1

Beautiful light
Great composition
Nice work with the blended exposures!

Doug Solis

Very nice, you even are getting those golden reflections in the water. Nice composition. Did you try verticles?

ThatCanonGuy

I love it, do you have the 17-40L? Do you think the 17-40L would have worked just as well? I mean, you're not using 2.8, so is the IQ near the same on both?

chrismoore

Thanks for the comments, I did take some verticals but not from here. CanonGuy: I'm sure the 17-40 would have worked just the same. The 17-40 and 16-35 cover a redundant focal length, so most people I know usually have one or the other, but very similar lenses.

ThatCanonGuy

I've just heard some people say that it's not that great IQ-wise, but images I've seen seem to say the opposite.

chrismoore

ThatCanonGuy wrote: »

I've just heard some people say that it's not that great IQ-wise, but images I've seen seem to say the opposite.

Any differences would be subtle, I'm sure, but I really don't know that lens very well. One of the guys I was with was shooting with it and he has great results. The 16-35 is my "always have on" lens for landscapes, but I do find the corner softness to be unacceptable, though it is quite sharp at f/11 which I mainly shoot at. The other guy I was with was using a Nikon 14-24mm with a Canon adapter and that lens was freakin' sharp! As soon as they figure out a way to make filters for it I'm getting it.

Marc Muench

Chris,

Great shot

I say make it much darker!

CWSkopec

Absolutely gorgeous! Nice work, Chris!

chrismoore

Marc Muench wrote: »

Chris,

Great shot

I say make it much darker!

Thanks, Marc. I made some curve adjustments per your advice. Does this work better?

chrismoore

CWSkopec wrote: »

Absolutely gorgeous! Nice work, Chris!

Thanks CWSkopec! Is that Toroweap in your badge? I stopped there the last day of my trip...great place!

CWSkopec

chrismoore wrote: »

Thanks CWSkopec! Is that Toroweap in your badge? I stopped there the last day of my trip...great place!

It is indeed Toroweap. My favorite shot from one of the most spectacular places I've ever seen!

ThatCanonGuy

I'm sorry, but I like the original lighter one better.
Maybe it's just me.

dseidman

I love the processing on this (especially the second version). That golden light reflecting off the water and the rock on the right side of the image is pretty cool.
The one thing that bothers me a little are the rocks on the left side. They seem a little too blue to me. Was this a result of increasing the saturation or did they really look like that?

chrismoore

dseidman wrote: »

I love the processing on this (especially the second version). That golden light reflecting off the water and the rock on the right side of the image is pretty cool.
The one thing that bothers me a little are the rocks on the left side. They seem a little too blue to me. Was this a result of increasing the saturation or did they really look like that?

Thanks. I like the second better, I think the increased contrast shows the gold reflections better, especially on the sandstone. Regarding the rocks, I looked back at the RAW file and they are pretty blue. I did not increase the saturation in processing this image, but I did increase the Vibrance in Lightroom. Whenever I do that, I decrease the blues saturation by an equal amount because LR really does weight the vibrance heavily to blues. I actually think it is more an issue with the color temperature-- I saw this with many of my canyon images, where the cliffs and reflected light was warm, but some canyon walls and rocks were too cool. I did mask in warmer layers for some of the images, but I left this one as is. I'll do some experimenting with it. Thanks again.

dseidman

chrismoore wrote: »

Thanks. I like the second better, I think the increased contrast shows the gold reflections better, especially on the sandstone. Regarding the rocks, I looked back at the RAW file and they are pretty blue. I did not increase the saturation in processing this image, but I did increase the Vibrance in Lightroom. Whenever I do that, I decrease the blues saturation by an equal amount because LR really does weight the vibrance heavily to blues. I actually think it is more an issue with the color temperature-- I saw this with many of my canyon images, where the cliffs and reflected light was warm, but some canyon walls and rocks were too cool. I did mask in warmer layers for some of the images, but I left this one as is. I'll do some experimenting with it. Thanks again.

That's kind of what I figured. I've had this same issue happen a number of times where I didn't notice that something looked unnaturally blue until way later. Usually I just go back and only select the affected area and warm it up and desaturate it slightly.
Anyway, with whatever you end up doing, this is an awesome shot. It makes me really want to get back to the Virgin Narrows again.

Enlightphoto

Great image, Chris. Love the details in the lighter version, but with a bit darker water. Not sure, but given all the red rock and golden light, it seems a hair heavy in the cyans in the water and rocks on the opposite shore. I might try selecting those areas and do a spot reduction via HSL.

Cheers, & needless to say, Especially with your Grand Dawn, wish I'd been there.

chrismoore

Enlightphoto wrote: »

Great image, Chris. Love the details in the lighter version, but with a bit darker water. Not sure, but given all the red rock and golden light, it seems a hair heavy in the cyans in the water and rocks on the opposite shore. I might try selecting those areas and do a spot reduction via HSL.

Cheers, & needless to say, Especially with your Grand Dawn, wish I'd been there.

Thanks, Gary, I know you would have not slept in for the Grand Dawn. We'll have to meet up again. I will mask in a layer and experiment with temp and hsl selectively and see if I can balance the tones better. Thanks for commenting. Cheers

chrismoore

I changed the temperature and hue, decreased the cyans, more so for the rocks. Does this work better?