Zion's Patriarchs

Beautiful scene Justin. Like I just explained to Jimmy on his image, I'm on my lousy work monitor so color balance is askew for me. Given that warning, this does appear to have a pretty heavy color cast. I love the warm light, composition, and silky water motion however. I posted a technique a while back that Charles Glatzer recommended for removing color casts (actually let's you choose how much cast you want). I will try to find it and repost here for you if you would like to use it.

EDIT:
I saw this tip the other day on another forum and thought I'd post it here. The tip came from Charles Glatzer. This is very easy to learn, and takes the subjectivity out of removing casts. The only "addition" I might add would be to experiment with the final step (#6). Don't just automatically go to 50%, but play around a little with it.

1. Duplicate the background layer (Ctrl J)
2. Select the duplicate bkgd layer
3. Filter > Blur > Average (produces a solid color matching the color cast)
4. Open Levels Adjustment Layer, click duplicate bkgd layer image w/ middle (gray set) eyedropper.
5. deselect layer visibility icon (eyeball) of duplicate bkgd layer
6. tweak adjustment levels layer opacity to suit taste (50% is norm)

Thanks Bill, I would love to check that out!

Here's one toned down to compare

Justin, check out my EDIT above. Email me if you have any questions!

Justin, having been there on this morning myself (casually walking up to you guys with coffee in hand, no camera) and having driven over marveling at the sky, I can say with absolute certainty that the orange cast is natural. It absolutely WAS that orange/magenta everywhere that morning. In my life, I've seen perhaps only a handful of sunrises that were as vibrant, but most of the action was at the other end of the sky so people may not understand where it's coming from. For that reason I think I would remove a lot of it here. In fact, I'd take that blue slider up 30 points or so (just as an example of the amount needed) and the Cyan up 10 or so more. I might even do this selectively, working the sky less and land more to remove the very strong orange cast. You could even retain the yellow trees from this file and mask them back in carefully, at whatever opacity you want so you're retaining that good color coming from this file in that area. In any case, the composition is strong. If anything, I might have liked to see a little separation between the central rock and the background, resulting in no interruption in the water flow across the image, but that's a minor nit. I know you explored everything here. Oh....and you could also do some of Tony's sky sharpening or some variation of a USM Contrast + Noise layer on the sky to bring out the textures better and add drama. Good luck!

Regarding the repost, I'd go even further with it but it's heading the right direction.

Dang! i totally understand casts and believe it was that strong but visually, I think a cooler image would show better tonal separation and be a bit more visually striking. Strong comp though, well done man!

Spectacular Justin. Your image is truly beautiful and inspiring.

Great shot Justin! It was truly a sight to behold that morning. The sky and peaks look very natural, though the foreground does look a little on the warm side/orange cast, and I would try selectively correcting that. Fantastic capture.

Regardless of the color cast - the image is wonderful. Love the foreground rocks and like you I prefer a little more action in the water but for this one I think the water blur really makes this one pop - enhances those fg rocks. Do like the second the best. No editing suggestions - think you got enough so far. Good luck.

Damn that's a lot of color.

Coffee in hand marc? Was it a 70-200 mug? hahaha.

For the image...there looks to be intense CA/fringing on the top peaks esp the left one. Think it will be hard to remove casts but cameras are only tools. Do what you feel works for the scene. But damn...color! ha

aF

Nice work Justin. In regards to color cast, if it was what you saw then by all means keep it. Intense colors are to be shown off. Some tweaking will show you which direction to go but until then you have a great shot.

Thanks for sharing

Thanks for the tips Bill & Marc. Here's another version with some suggestions executed

Beautiful! Amazing sunrise, almost unbelievable. And, you were in such a special place at that moment. Very nice work, Justin. Love this.

I can't add anything the heavy-hitters haven't said already except that I like this image a lot. A strong cast but it seems natural to me, although I like the third version best.

The first version is beautiful and each repost get's better.

- Dan.

Wow, that final repost is a stunner! Great work Justin.

The final repost is excellent!

Aaron, sometimes I've just gotta sit back and admire the sunrise. When you know a place as well as I do the valley of Zion here it doesn't say "capture me" all the time (although it is nonetheless beautiful). This was simply a moment to admire for me. Had I never captured this spot before, it likely would have been different, and I'm so glad Justin and Chris got such a show (after waiting several days I might add). I got mine from near here a couple weeks later in a fashion I had not quite seen before. That satisfied me at the time. I don't know what exactly compels me to photograph, but on this morning I just figured I'd leave it to these guys. It was excellent coffee.

BTW, last version looks very good.

Love the shot.

I'm on a good and calibrated monitor right now and, yes too much warmth on the bottom. I would do a gradient from bottom to top, then on that layer go to "Image/Adjustments/Color Balance" in PS and cool/neutralize the bottom portion a lot more.

This is amazing Justin. The 3rd version certainly looks the best to me. Nice comp and spectacular light. TK's cloud sharpening action is so cool!

A great sunrise to see and to shoot. Wonderful color and light. I prefer #2 slightly.

Yeah, the last one nails it! Beautiful! Color management seems to give me fits more than anything else in post processing.

Chris

Wow, Justin! I absolutely love it! The third version seems to look more natural, but I'd go with any of them.

Wonderful capture Justin, the composition is great. Last post looks the best to me.

Very impressive Justin. Looks like a lot of complex and intertwined componenets to this one. I think the cast removal will help simplify and separate (as mentioned by others) the different parts of the image. I had one morning in Glacier this summer when the color cast of the sky painted the ground and water a similar red and orange. One of those magical moments we live for as photographers.

Final repost works for me Justin!!! Must have been awesome to see in person!