CaptainC Loc: Colorado, south of Denver

As many of you know, I am decidedly NOT a landscape photographer. But a good friend of mine is and I went with him and two other for a week-long trip through Arches N.P.,
Canyonlands N.P., and Monument Valley tribal park.

We did not get the nice blue skies with white puffy clouds, but the overcast and hazy conditions make for some different looks.
You comments are welcome, but DO NOT post any of your processing.

mdorn Loc: Portland, OR

Very nice... it would have been nice to zoom in a bit more, but I'm not a pixel peeper, so for me it works the way it is. :-)

Love the orange and violet color tones. Is this cropped, or is it a pano? Would make a great wall hanger. Hard to critique.

lighthouse Loc: No Fixed Abode

To me CaptainC it looks a little too purple on the bluffs. Does this have a slight HDR type processing done to it?
Maybe back the blue channel off a fraction?
And the large bluff on the left edge of the shot pulls the composition that way, away from what I see as the "natural" composition, but in itself looks "incomplete".
I'd be tempted to crop the left 30% off the photo, between the second flat bluff and the first spiky one, to give it a more traditional composition.
I don't mind it being cloudy at all, "you takes what ya gets" with landscape stuff.
Sorry my comments are more layman than technical but thats what I am.

ebrunner Loc: New Jersey Shore

To me the colors look a bit off. I can't say that they are wrong, because I was not there, and it is conceivable that they were actually those colors. Other than that, the composition is quite nice.

Crichmond Loc: Loveland, CO

CaptainC

First I would like to say that I love your work, and I really appreciate the comments you have made on so many of the other threads. Your experience and expertise are greatly valued by me and certainly by others on this forum as well.

Colors, to me are subjective, and as I am sure you are aware the camera does not see like our eyes see. So on the subjective side, and creative side I really like what you have done.

Not sure what f stop you used, but on landscapes I use a minimum of f 16.

Also, I would consider picking up the foreground in sharp detail and letting it lead the eye into the photo.

Other than that, I think you have done an excellent job.

Thanks for sharing!

minniev Loc: MIssissippi

Well, welcome to the wonderful world of landscape photography! I mainly do landscapes and admire the expert portrait photographers like yourself. I'm terrified to post any portraits since I don't have a clue about them, so I admire your willingness to share your venture into another genre.

Looks like you got your monuments sharp through the frame, wish I could see it bigger. Sometimes there's a car on that road that winds around the big one, and I have left them there on my MV photos to show how darned big the things are. They do look a bit too purple, like someone else noted, which makes me wonder if they are HDR processed. My HDR's from MV were purple too, and had to be tamed. Of course, if you wanted a purple/blue palette, then you achieved it, and that's fine, they are yours! I like how you brought out the texture in that upper layer of clouds. I don't really mind the chopped off monument on the left, I think the wider view helps give a sense of the vastness of the place. But I'm known for wanting to cram too much stuff in the frame, so you may not want to listen to me on that!

CaptainC Loc: Colorado, south of Denver

There IS purple in the original and maybe I brought it out a bit more than I should have. Although I will say I rather like the effect. As many of you know, those rocks are a pretty deep red to begin with and I suppose the overly-cool color temp of the sky that day pulled out a bit of purple. Here is the original image. I did have a there exposure set from which I produced the HDR version and I guess that added more purple as well.

I aded another image later that day. 30 Seconds at f2.8, ISO1600.

The original SOOC


Monument Valley Stars

Chuck_893 Loc: Lincoln, Nebraska, USA

Whoa, I really love the starscape! But back to the original: I always say Ya takes yer pitcher with the light you gots. Even now, retired, footloose, I usually can't hang around if the light doesn't cooperate. Got there wrong time of day—sun's out but smack in front of me—it's raining—I hafta leave—whatever. I'm also a great believer in noodling around until the picture looks like the one you saw—not with your eye necessarily, but in your mind's eye. Thus I think you did great with the image you had. The light was simply bloody awful, pancake flat, but in your head somewhere you saw the picture you posted, and hauled it kicking and screaming out of the original, which is what I would have done. I think your original pano crop is perfect. Maaaaybe you could have cropped in a little more into the butte on the left, but I can't see a reason for it. I'd leave it alone. All of the great landscapes of this country are subject to the whims of nature. Not every magnificent place looks like the pictures you've seen when you get there, and you hafta leave, so ya takes yer pitcher with the light you gots. :mrgreen:

smcaleer Loc: Dearborn Heights, Michigan

I think you did a wonderful job. I love the coloring! I also think that the wide angle view is perfect for this one. I can see it on canvas over a fireplace.

AzPicLady Loc: Behind the camera!

First, I would say that there are no bad pictures of Monument Valley. It is such a beautiful place. I do agree that the color looks a bit off, and perhaps the coolness of the sky attributed to that. It it were mine, I'd correct the color to the actual warm reds.

The star pic is an absolute winner! Enlarge it as big as it will go and frame it!

minniev Loc: MIssissippi

You did indeed have a purple day to work with. I see why your tones are in the blue/purple palette. You got a lot out of that sky, for what you had to work with. I really like the starscape version, I've never tried one. The blue/purple palette looks perfect with the velvety sky.

Emm5

Very nice composition . I like the purple hue and even though you did not get the clouds you were hoping for, these clouds add interest to the shot.
Have to work with what you have.

R.G. Loc: Scotland

You could also have added that overcast and hazy conditions make for some very interesting challenges when it comes to editing the pictures.

This has an ever-so-slightly surreal look which works very well and it's an interesting answer to what I suspect was the flatness of the original shot.

jenny Loc: in hiding:)

Capt.C,we are not used to seeing this scene with this color.Last time I saw it,it was hot as blazes and red-orange which is more common to most of us.
While landscape is not your main activity and PP definitely not mine by choice, I did privately play with the original a bit with the minimum PP I allow myself to apply to anything. It was well worth it.
All I did was some general warming of the scene. This brought the main feature forward. The blue-violet haze remains in the background for contrast. With just a bit of sharpening the foreground came up sharply,giving therefore three areas of interest.
This is a well-composed scene and with these light touches,the image becomes beautiful with its aerial perspective...and much more attractive than I ever saw it,but without destroying reality. That you for sharing!

Joecosentino Loc: Whitesboro, New York

I like the cloudy hazy look sometimes we see to many of the same images from people. I always try and do something different when I am at an iconic photo site. Good job. Thanks for sharing