Light in the Abyss

Thomas, this is a very cool shot. I agree the reflection is a bit harsh as is the opening at the top of the cave. Perhaps they can be toned down a bit. At the same time perhaps the cave walls could be lightened a bit, but for me these are minor nits. The blue beam of light against the green cave walls is very nice.You can see the bottom of the pool through the crustal clear water. And all the details and shapes in the walls are very appealing.

That is bizarre and quite beautiful. Can't quite figure out the blue laser, but is sure makes quite an impression in this setting. Could see trying to bring out a bit more texture in the shadows as they seem to be quite enticing.

Thanks for the comments

The blue shaft is actually the light shooting through a narrow cave opening 72m up which isn't shown in this frame. There are lots of particles floating in the cave, hence the appearance of the light ray. The blown out white spot is actually the reflection of the light shaft back up onto the roof, not the opening. I've tried burning it, and using Tony's masks to darken it while maintaining contrast but it always looks a bit funny. Will have to keep at it.

I'll try playing around with the shadows a bit more, I'd like to keep it reasonably dark to maintain the mood, but it's a good idea to define the textures a bit more.

This is a great shot. About the only alternative I can think of is to bracket a shot like this, getting several different exposures and blending in the blown out areas from one of the images with much shorter shutter speed. It is still a killer shot!

I would never have guessed that the bright spot on the ceiling is a reflection - it looks like a hole in the cave that is looking out to the sky. I can't think of any easy way to deal with that, and this image, as interesting and neat as it is, would definitely work better (IMO) if you found a way to remove it. I don't think a multi-exposure blend would work with a hotspot of that magnitude! Perhaps trying a different angle, using those stalactites to hide it?

A beautifully crafted image Thomas ..love the setting, and your compositional choice. Well done ..

Balan Vinod

Bracketing *may* have worked and is a good thought that I honestly didn't think of at the time. However in this situation there wasn't really any solid ground on which to get a perfectly identically composed shot. I think I agree with Jason that it was simply going to be too hot regardless.

I have a few different angles, but obviously they changed the angle of the light shaft, and movement around the cave was quite limited as most of it is underwater! I'll post a few more from this location when I have a chance to process them.

Thanks again for the thoughts

Nice shot Thomas. Love the color and the blue shaft is awesome.
If you're working in CS5 the blown highlights might be a good candidate for Content Aware Fill if you care to modify the image to that degree. I haven't played around with it yet but I've seen some examples of it's application it's pretty amazing. I wouldn't lighten the shadows too much, after all caves are dark and a fully lit cavern just would'nt seem natural IMO. I think you've got is just about right. Well done.

I would try to bring out some more texture in the shadows. this has a mystic feel to it. i like your comp. The reflection is a bit harsh.

Seems like you could have taken many different exposures and blended in the bright spot with a shot taken at a much, much faster shutter speed. You were using a tripod anyway, thats why we bracket! Oh well, lesson learned for next time! Its still a good shot of a beautiful location...

I think bracketing and blending would be the only way to save any detail in the blown areas. The bright reflection on the ceiling is distracting. Maybe a comp without it would work? All that aside, I like this shot.

Extreme. Great capture and display Abismo. Wonderful first post, keep them coming.
Bob

I think the scene and composition is very unique and even mesmerizing. Very nice capture here for sure.

IMO the development leaves a little room for improvement especially the blown out area. Bracketing will still work if you use PS's "Auto Align" feature. You put the images on top of each other in layers, click on both layers so they are active then go to Auto align. It works pretty darn good unless the images are way off.

On my monitor I am wondering if the blue is a little overstated and all the other colors a little understated.

Abismo, The light reflection on the roof is rather harsh but the only way I can think of to fix it would be to do an HDR image that combined at leas two shots, one to bring the highlight reflection down to a level where yo had some hint of detail (zone IX in Zone System terms). If the original is a RAW exposure you might try using a conversion that you reduced the exposure on to do an HDR from. From what I can see here though it appears that that area is totally burnt out and there may be no detail to recover. On the plus side it is a small enough area that it is not too objectionable and you have my respect for rappelling down there to get the shot.

Really awesome cave you've got here - reminds me of Gollum's cave from The Hobbit. I love the color overall. I had no idea the bright spot was a reflection until I read your post. As far as fixing that spot you could just blend another exposure just for that spot. This would be a really cool place to experiment with light painting with colored flashlights. Nice job.

Quite astonishing your dedication to getting this shot is justified by the result. It looks pretty correct to me.

Amazing image, Thomas. That beam of light is incredible. Gorgeous.

Thomas,

Welcome to NPN and the ES&S/Landscape gallery! Glad to have you here.

You certainly started off with a fascinating image of nature. What a place! and I'm sure a wonderful experience. Really, without your description, we all would have thought there was an opening up top. That sure is one heck of a reflection of light. Sure, it's blown on the ceiling, but the spot is relatively small in relation to the overall space captured, so I don't think it's too bad.

So from what I'm gathering here, that beam of light is the only source of light in the cave? Amazing.

The only suggestion or question I have is that the ray of light is really blue/purplish? I wasn't there so it's hard for me to say, but it seems somewhat un-natural to me. But put this all together and I still think this is a fascinating capture of nature.

Welcome! We look forward to your images and participation.

Lon

Welcome to NPN Thomas! Very neat first post. I don't know that I would fool with the shadows much as that "might" take away from the fact this is a cave shot. Just guessing there - might want to try it and see. Either way, this is a super interesting shot. Don't really have anything to add on the treatment of the harsh reflection as it's been covered.

This is superb, cave photography is an interest of mine and I look forward to seeing more of your work

Really cool scene! Certainly something different

what a spectacular place - nicely captured in this beautiful photo!