Light Catchers+ Repost

This is a very well executed shot Peter. You handled this difficult exposure very well.

Thank you Ben, the blend was actually the easy part for once. It's amazing how easy they seamed together when looking at both images. Glad it all worked out though.

Holy smokes! Perfect. Nothing to change.

Where's the print button?

Great work Peter, thanks for posting.

Haha thanks Johan. Not 100% sure on this one for print yet, there seemed to be a bit of noise in both files, but I think I could manage 20x30 and retain all the detail.

Wow…Love the dreamy foreground and sharp background. May be one of your best I’ve seen from your recent posts.

Now that, them, there, is some glow ya'all!

WOW! Gorgeous shot Peter. Love the glow coming off the cactus and nice colors in the sky. Very nice.

Peter I am liking this one a lot. I do have a couple suggestions to make this even better IMO. First I would pull back on the orton type effect on the FG chollas. Second would be to either darken that entire bush next to the cactus to the left of center or brighten the top portion to match the bottom. It's very green on the bottom but much darker towards the top, perhaps from the blend. The glow over the mountains is sweet. Nice job.

Spectacular light capture here Peter. Love the glow in the cacti an beautiful sky.

Thank you everyone!

Zack- For some reason the Orton appears a lot stronger on here than it does posted elsewhere (I'm guessing compression since I had to size this down a bit to post). When I use the Orton effect, I brush over the landscape at 50% first and then small steps down from there in case there are any hiccups. In this case, I used a 20% opacity over the entire image and then brushed over the landscape once at 50% allowing only 10% glow on the cacti. They were already glowing in the RAW file and if I pushed the Orton any further than that it looked far too glowy. I also see what you mean with the greens. That is something I could probably tone down a bit as well as the brush on the lower right.

wonderful light & glow

This is just outstanding. The depth both in terms of focus and dynamic range and color is wonderful and brings me right into the photo. What an amazing moment to have experienced and captured. Really well done.

Well that sure is pretty :)

aF

Gorgeous. Perhaps the cacti glow a little too much and perhaps they are half a stop light on the shadow side but I love the composition and overall lighting going on as a whole. Really great shot.

A really nice comp with the eye directed through the center of the image. And, the light is sweet. I agree on a pull back on the Orton on the foreground needles, but that's my only suggestion. Beautiful scene.

Beautiful glowing light throughout this image. Excellent exposure. I like that the light on the cholla spines seems to have about the same intensity of the light over the mountains. Gives this a very nicely balanced feel.

Looks good Peter, per your style. The cholla and nice saguaro in the middle look like possibilities for another evening.

I'd be really tempted to crop this off the bottom or darken the lowest cactus areas a bit. The trouble with Chollas is always the same - knowing where to crop them off. I feel like the green in the cactus is a little bit on the unnatural side given the lighting, but a minor point. The Orton amount doesn't bother me. The background is stunning, though I think you could balance it a tad more by brushing on some more warmth and color at right.

Thank you everyone, I appreciate the suggestions.

Marc- You make a very good point about cropping cholla. It's no wonder I have the most difficult time using them into a composition, but to me they are simply the most incredible cacti to photograph as they are extremely photogenic (backlit or not).

I'll have to get around to adjusting that green and introducing a little more warmth to the scene. I'll get a re-post up as soon as possible.

Here is a quick re-post that hopefully took care of the green cast. Warmed it up a bit more and darkened the foreground cholla.

The repost is far superior Peter. superb in fact.

The chollas really stand out in this soft lighting. I love the composition with the saguaro on the horizon. And the upper sky is wonderfully colorful. Very nice!, Peter.

Wonderful comp here, all the elements seem to pull together nicely. My critique would be that it feels just a tiny bit "washed", really just a little. Consider bringing more contrast into the mid tone purples and oranges. Otherwise I like the correction to the greens and cholla.

Well executed!

Shane

Thank you Ian, Mark, and Shane. I'll probably punch the contrast a bit when I send this to get printed, whenever that may be. Thanks again for all your suggestions!

The repost is stunning Peter. Beautiful sky and the Chollas just glow. Beautifully done.

The repost shows why this critique forum is so useful. Stunning work.

Great work. This is one of the best I've seen of the AZ desert - the glow in the cholla really tops it off.