A Delicate Balance

Wow, such a powerful image. I love the carefully crafted composition, the rich color, excellent detail and sharpness, and of course, the drama. Great shot.

A very different view! The arch looks very odd from this perspective, but the storm in the background is fantastic!

Wow, A great shot Robert. The large version is especially nice! Love the colors and detail, and then there is that lightning!

Nick Bristol
Lone Rock, WI

this certainly is a dramatic moment over a very nice scene Robert!

sorry to be picky, but looking at the large file, it seems that there are quite a few "hard edges" between the rocks/FG and sky, which doesn't really look natural.

which blending method did you use?

Very cool shot Robert and wonderful capture. I wish there was a bit of room between the legs of the arch and the barrel distortion is noticeable as well...Overall, I think this is fantastic capture. A unique take on this iconic spot with some incredible conditions.

Michael

This is one of the best perspectives that I've ever seen of Delicate Arch.
This lightning strike is quite an addition. This is very dramatic.
I'm looking forward to more of your postings from your October trip.

Fascinating scene and perspective. Some really unusual shooting conditions. Could maybe see burning down the lights and opening up the shadows a bit more to balance the light.

Wow, what an incredible capture and unique view of the Arch. Nicely done.

Very nice. I love the intensity of the storm and the overall mood that it gives to the rest of the scene.

Nice dramatoc photograph. Well done!

Wow image from a wow place...and more importantly, wow lighting conditions. Well done!!

What can I say? It's a fantastic shot!

Might crop 4:5 to eliminate some left side but wicked cool shot :) Which trigger? Or was it the 'lightning trigger'? :p

aF

Fantastic conditions, and a real cool perspective--congrats for getting these two things together!

Morkel wasn't being picky, he was being observant. When a post here has 400+ views and only 13 comments, it generally means there are major technical problems with the shot. Here, the dark outlines around the arch etc make this look like two shots spliced together, which as Morkel notes, is unnatural looking. The fg is much too bright compared to the arch. I think if you cant make the blend work, you're better off just using the shorter exposure even if the fg becomes heavily shadowed. If you need help with the blend, either post the two exposures here or email me them, and id be happy to offer suggestions.

Looks fantastic! What a dramatic scene!

Morkel and Stan,

Great observations...and it's clear that I've got some work to do. The two exposures were pretty far off of each other (1/4 and 2s), making the blend pretty extreme no matter what I do. Perhaps Stan is on the mark...and the darker exposure may need to stand on it's own.

The processing of this one was also done quite some time ago, before I learned a lot more about lum masks (my masking was pretty extreme, unblended, and hard-edged then). Like I said...I'm hopeful that I've learned a lot since then.

I'll definitely revisit this one in the coming days...hopefully bringing some new knowledge and processing experience to bear...and work to get the blend right (hopefully ). If it's not a problem, I'd love to pass the resulting rework by the two of you for your thoughts on it!

Everyone else, thank you for your feedback as well!!!

Robert

No problem at all. I was going to suggest lum masks, but with the big spread in exposures it may or may not work. But its worth an attempt, cause the subject is extremely cool.

Another option is using more exposures and thereby taming the huge difference in dynamic range. But that of course needs to be sorted out in-camera in the field :).

Would love to see the stand-alone lightning exposure...