The Divining Rod

Gallery: LandscapePosted May 2, 2011164 views9 comments

Greetings!

I've been lurking for the past month or so and have really been inspired by the images here. I've been primarily an underwater shooter for the past few years and am new to landscape photography. This image is from my first landscape workshop/tour in the Eastern Sierras, although it ended up being mostly in Death Valley due to the weather, which ended up working out very well. This is one of the small trickles that drain into the salt flats near Furnace Creek. Although it was the early afternoon, we were lucky to have a storm coming in which gave us not only dramatic skies, but easier lighting. We even had a few drops fall on us!

Like I said, this is my first effort, so I'm looking forward to comments and critique.

Thanks,

Phil

Canon 7D, Canon 10-22mm@10mm, f13, 1/160, ISO 100, hand held.

Comments

9 comments

Comment posted by Michael J Greene, on May 2, 2011 at 2:16 PM

Welcome to NPN Phil. Glad to see you posting. Fantastic work here. A thoughtful composition (even with the stream centered) with an excellent tonal range and drama. Solid work. Looking forward to seeing more.

Michael

Registered on June 18, 2009, 86 Posts, 2317 Comments

Comment posted by Danny Laureys on May 2, 2011 at 3:23 PM

Welcome, Great shot, like the composition, good conversion

Registered on January 5, 2008, 590 Posts, 1261 Comments

Comment posted by James Fougère on May 2, 2011 at 3:29 PM

Looks great Phil! Nice tonal control, and contrast. I am looking forward to playing with these images from this spot. As for the sky, did you use any masking techniques to control the hi-lights?

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

Comment posted by Marc Adamus on May 2, 2011 at 4:34 PM

Hey Phil, lovely composition here. Great to see your work on NPN and I'm sure the community will look forward to more from your sharp eye with wide angles. Hopefully they get to your website too and have a look at the underwater world as well! This is a great composition, although I feel some careful dodge/burning would add to the dramatic sky we saw that day. Hard to put into words exactly what I mean though, as it's a very artistic type of process. I might start with a darker sky and work on some mid-tone and highlight dodges in the brighter areas. Did you do some kind of texture work to increase the contrasts? Anyway, I'm picky. You know that. This is a terrific composition with great potential.

Registered on September 17, 2005, 780 Posts, 8091 Comments

Comment posted by Aaron Feinberg on May 2, 2011 at 6:33 PM

Overall it works. But lacking the BAM. Lower to get that way in to your face. :) Nice light!

aF

Registered on October 26, 2009, 399 Posts, 2789 Comments

Comment posted by Phil Sokol on May 2, 2011 at 7:50 PM

Thanks for the comments everyone!

James - No masking techniques per se, just processed with NIK's Silver Efex Pro.
Marc - Thanks for the suggestion. I had a darker sky, but it felt too heavy. I'll go to work on it and see what I can bring out.

Thanks again!

Phil

Registered on May 1, 2011, 5 Posts, 10 Comments

Comment posted by Steve Sieren on May 3, 2011 at 1:58 AM

Great view Phil, the comp looks great!

The image seems a little noisy, you might try using the green filter or mixing in a layer with a green filter used. If you upgrade to Silver Efex 2 you can get a discount with this code, sieren. Thanks.

Registered on January 2, 2008, 360 Posts, 5321 Comments

Comment posted by Cory Freeman on May 3, 2011 at 9:38 AM

a very interesting comp Phil. I like the comp but there's something bothering me about the clouds, they look a little over cooked or something, kinda like a hdr rendering. Perhaps lessen that a bit??

Registered on December 16, 2003, 107 Posts, 1341 Comments

Comment posted by David W. Kelly on May 4, 2011 at 1:15 PM

Great comp. I love the leading lines. Welcome to NPN.

Registered on October 7, 2005, 883 Posts, 6590 Comments