Castle in the Sky

Gallery: LandscapePosted January 23, 2011349 views18 comments

Just got 9 new drum scans from images I made in 2010 - this is the first. The background rock formations are the east side of the San Rafael Swell near Goblin Valley.

I had intended to shoot in Goblin Valley during this trip, but wasn't really feelin' it - so I went exploring in the surrounding area and found this amazing monument and visualized a panoramic shot. I went back the following morning and was greeted by fantastic conditions. The sun had been up for about 5 minutes, but was behind a thin veil of wispy clouds such that the sun was very dim and very red - creating a wonderful soft warm light.

--- I used a singh-ray polarizer for this to darken the sky (I was facing perpendicular to the sun); I didn't want to use a GND as it could have significantly reduced shadow detail on the "castle". Hoping it doesn't look too weird (I mitigated it as much as I could in processing) - I'm thinking any photographer would notice, but I doubt most people would. What do you think?

I plan on making a very large print (90 inches wide possibly) of this soon and would love any thoughts, ideas, critiques, etc. Thanks.

Definitely need to see the larger version on this.

Walker Titan 5x7, Provia 100F, Schneider 110XL, Singh-ray warming polarizer, drum scan

Comments

18 comments

Comment posted by Craig Myers on January 23, 2011 at 1:10 AM

Beyond the excellent light, color, and definition, I'm really captivated by the striking singularity of the formation.

Registered on September 1, 2008, 85 Posts, 757 Comments

Comment posted by Jeff Wiebe on January 23, 2011 at 1:11 AM

Wow. Incredible light and the clarity and sharpness blow me away. Just awesome.

Registered on July 24, 2006, 102 Posts, 772 Comments

Comment posted by Doug Roane on January 23, 2011 at 3:20 AM

wow - fantastic! Looks just great as is!

Registered on December 12, 2008, 213 Posts, 2226 Comments

Comment posted by Abdullaziz Bin Ali on January 23, 2011 at 4:23 AM

Awesoem
Like this alot

Registered on May 31, 2009, 112 Posts, 1590 Comments

Comment posted by Peter Richter on January 23, 2011 at 7:06 AM

A majestic composition, stunning colors, I cannot find anything I would change!

Peter

Registered on November 10, 2010, 218 Posts, 2723 Comments

Comment posted by Paul Breitkreuz on January 23, 2011 at 10:26 AM

I'm really liking this one, Andrew. The larger version is absolutely stunning with overall detail, color, and total processing characteristics.

Registered on February 25, 2006, 525 Posts, 8448 Comments

Comment posted by John Mumaw on January 23, 2011 at 12:23 PM

This really does look great as is. I can ever so slightly see the effects of using a polarizer with a wider angle lens, but the slightly darker sky that resulted settles over the crown of the butte perfectly. Certainly not discernable to the more casual viewer.

Registered on September 9, 2005, 62 Posts, 2289 Comments

Comment posted by Alex Mody on January 23, 2011 at 3:52 PM

This is a very subtly beautiful image. I imagine that a large print would look amazing. I'd consider burning some of the brighter areas in the desert floor before the butte, but there's not much else I can think of as far as suggestions for print. Looks good!

Registered on December 25, 2007, 163 Posts, 1896 Comments

Comment posted by Gary McGhee on January 23, 2011 at 3:57 PM

This looks great Andrew, especially the larger version. The early morning light and colour you've captured is stunning. Lovely landscape.

Gary.

Registered on April 15, 2010, 142 Posts, 2416 Comments

Comment posted by Morris McClung on January 23, 2011 at 4:49 PM

The light and color are extremely nice here. I also think the pano format gives a good sense of space. The foreground even in the large version seems a touch soft. Maybe just compression though.

Registered on May 7, 2007, 670 Posts, 19650 Comments

Comment posted by James Fougère on January 23, 2011 at 7:39 PM

It looks super clean to me

Nice image

Registered on October 25, 2010, 41 Posts, 831 Comments

Comment posted by Tony Kuyper on January 23, 2011 at 9:10 PM

I think it's lovely. I really like the colors here, especially the sky. The bluff is certainly a very imposing formation.

Registered on November 1, 2003, 364 Posts, 22328 Comments

Comment posted by Bill Chambers on January 23, 2011 at 10:39 PM

What a wonderful capture Andrew. Just a contrast between the soft, delicate pastels and the harsher, alien looking landscape. Beautifully presented.

Registered on April 10, 2005, 753 Posts, 21216 Comments

Comment posted by Chris Chamberlain on January 23, 2011 at 10:50 PM

Earth shadow is my favorite sunset/sunrise situation, I just love it! Nice occurance of it here, and I think your choice to center the butte/mesa was the right one!

Chris

Registered on March 13, 2007, 500 Posts, 8365 Comments

Comment posted by Chris Martin on January 24, 2011 at 7:55 AM

Love those pastels. Nice shot!

Registered on September 1, 2008, 2 Posts, 24 Comments

Comment posted by Jason Kim on January 24, 2011 at 2:09 PM

Lovely landscape image, Andrew. The soft light here is very nice.

Registered on July 1, 2006, 60 Posts, 1233 Comments

Comment posted by Lon Overacker on January 24, 2011 at 7:51 PM

Andrew,

I almost missed commenting on this one! This is wonderful! I love the color captured with the earth's shadow and the color gradient in the sky is beautiful.

This should make a beautiful large print. Since you asked, the only suggestion I would have would be some selective contrast increases (read, drop the shadows) in the background mountains. Not so much that the contrast would compete with the castle formation upfront, but just to help a little bit in the definition of the bg landscape. I'm talking subtle. Just the type situation for TK's burn/dodge layer and some luminosity painting. Yeah, that's the ticket.

I hope to see more of those 5x7 scans posted here! Thanks for posting this one.

Lon

Registered on November 24, 2006, 521 Posts, 19147 Comments

Comment posted by Mark Hespenheide on January 27, 2011 at 10:11 PM

Andrew,

Sorry I missed commenting on this earlier; there's a grace and beauty about it that's compelling.

Two technical points: Be careful about printing longer than 80" unless you already know what you're going to do with it -- talk with a framer first. Stock sheets of matboard and backing board only go up to 80" and get exorbitant above that. I've thought about doing a simple hanging with wood strips on the top and bottom for some of my stitched panoramas, but haven't tried it yet. Second (and this is presumptuous of me), if you want some tips on minimizing the polarizer's edge, e-mail me.

Registered on August 14, 2010, 3 Posts, 61 Comments