Long But Read to Appreciate, and Warning about product problem last sentence.
After prowling around here for a year before posting anything and now a member please let me know what you think about this picture. I went to Utah for the first times and thanks to your suggestions and comments we went to Moab. The last day we went to the Mesa Arch, arriving at 6am with Wife, 2 children 10 and 12, and 2 dogs 5 pound pom and 85 pound Golden. There was about 8 to 12 inches on snow and a sweltering -4 degrees!!! So we bundled up and loaded up, as the next photographer was arriving, I lead the way on my crutches since I am the slow one. Anyway the kids didn't make it till sunrise they were to cold, I told them to head back to the car. The wife was shooting, after some brief instruction, stationary on one tripod, and I took the other and camera in different position with 2nd tripod. The wife lasted till shortly after sunrise, and then she returned to the car. I was left to man the 2 cameras myself. I took with my camera 120 images and the other about 20. When I got back to the car we headed back towards Colorado, and I did my usual of unloading the cards. The card I was using getting different angles and position, you know the one with the 120 images, was fried. I went through the roof "@##!$%$$#&&*#(##@@, piece of crap" so here is what I discovered that there is a know, but I believe undocumented issue with Lexar Brand CF Cards and Canon cameras so be on alert
Posted by Grant Collier on January 21, 2007 at 3:45 PM
Sorry you lost all those images. I don't know if it's at all possible to recover the images, but maybe someone will have a suggestion. At least it does look like you came away with a nice shot of Mesa Arch. I do really like the composition and all the snow in your image. There does seem to be a pretty significant yellow color cast, though. What white balance setting were you using? If you were shooting in RAW, you can change the white balance and you should be able to get rid of the color cast that way. Otherwise, you'd have to do it in Photoshop.
Posted by Joshua Hardin on January 21, 2007 at 4:04 PM
I like the composition in your shot too. Did you use a warming or sunset filter? It is a bit yellow, but I kind of like this effect and the snow looks nice!
As far as the lost images go, most Lexar cards are pre-loaded with a program called Image Rescue. If you didn't copy this program when you first got your card, it may be also be available on their Web site: http://www.lexar.com/drivers/index.html#software. You may not get all of your images back after using Image Rescue, but there's a chance this program can grab at least some of them out of your card. Just don't do any card formatting until you try this!
I appreciate the comments so far, I used no filters Grant is there a setting on camera or just an adobe adjustment and if so I would appriciate any input how to do it with Adobe PS Elements 5.0
I think the composition and timing of the image are terrific and the only nit I have is very, very, minor. I'd crop just a bit off the top in order to remove the bit of sky in the ULC.
I really like the way you got all of the mountains in the shot and the sky above them actually has some color (not the usual blown-out white.) Even if you can't recover the images on the other camera you've got a damn nice one here!
A note about National Parks: Be careful where you take the dogs. Many of the parks, Canyonlands included I believe, allow dogs only in designated camping areas and on paved roads and, even then, only on leashes.
Sweet shot,
Posted by Scott Fricke on January 21, 2007 at 9:45 PM
I have heard of the problem with Lexar Cards in Canon 1ds Mark II's in a Richard Galbraith forum a couple years ago. As I remember it the files were not deleted from the cards, the camera just couldn't read them, and as Josh mentioned above they were able to be recovered using Image Rescue or a couple other "rescue" programs. I do not remember anyone who lost there images. I also seem to recall Canon did a software fix, so if you haven't checked for software updates for your camera you may want to download the latest from the Canon website. My brother had a similar problem with his Minolta and used Image Rescue to recover all shots.
Posted by Stan Rose on January 21, 2007 at 10:28 PM
That's an excellent shot. I don't see any problem with the color. My only minor problems are that the foreground seems a bit unsharp (the background should be a bit hazy, and is, but not the foreground rock). Also, just a personal preference but i would have included a bit more of the sky--the bottom of the arch is just a bit uncomfortably close to the top of the mtns for my tastes.
Posted by Todd Caudle on January 21, 2007 at 11:25 PM
Be gentle, but honest? The Bears so totally outplayed the Saints. Now can they do the same to Peyton?
Oh, and your image is too orange.
Posted by James H Egbert on January 22, 2007 at 12:08 AM
Hey i like the image a lot and the Color cast looks perfectly natural. If there were a yellow cast due to calibration or filtering the snow in the shade would be yellow too. You did a great job here. Just that some folks here have this thing about yellow. Oh Sorry 'bout yer Saints, but the Mini Broncs were due ya know! Go Manning! LOL
Posted by Doug Andrews on January 22, 2007 at 12:43 AM
I like the nice warmth of the orange. The last time I was at Mesa Arch, it lit up with that orange glow for me so this doesn't look unatural. I'm also seeing a little softness in the foreground.
Posted by Grant Collier on January 22, 2007 at 1:13 AM
Brenden, to answer your question, if you have a digital SLR, you'll be able to adjust the white balance setting on the camera. On my Canon 5D there's a button on the top that says AF-WB, where you can set the white balance to shade, cloudy, sunlight, custom, etc.
If you shot in RAW, the RAW converter should give the option of adjusting the white balance. If you shot in JPEG, you can adjust the color in the image with Color Balance or Curves in Photoshop (though I don't know what Elements has).
Hope you don't mind but I did some quick adjustments to your image. I took out a lot of yellow and some red as well. It's still not perfect and you'd be better off changing the white balance. But this should give you an idea of what I'm taking about...
Your image has a bit of a sepia-tone feel to it, so I think that's why some people like the colors. But there definitely is a color cast...just up to you whether you like it that way or not.
Discussion
10 repliesAfter prowling around here for a year before posting anything and now a member please let me know what you think about this picture. I went to Utah for the first times and thanks to your suggestions and comments we went to Moab. The last day we went to the Mesa Arch, arriving at 6am with Wife, 2 children 10 and 12, and 2 dogs 5 pound pom and 85 pound Golden. There was about 8 to 12 inches on snow and a sweltering -4 degrees!!!
As far as the lost images go, most Lexar cards are pre-loaded with a program called Image Rescue. If you didn't copy this program when you first got your card, it may be also be available on their Web site: http://www.lexar.com/drivers/index.html#software. You may not get all of your images back after using Image Rescue, but there's a chance this program can grab at least some of them out of your card. Just don't do any card formatting until you try this!
I really like the way you got all of the mountains in the shot and the sky above them actually has some color (not the usual blown-out white.) Even if you can't recover the images on the other camera you've got a damn nice one here!
A note about National Parks: Be careful where you take the dogs. Many of the parks, Canyonlands included I believe, allow dogs only in designated camping areas and on paved roads and, even then, only on leashes.
Sweet shot,
Oh, and your image is too orange.
If you shot in RAW, the RAW converter should give the option of adjusting the white balance. If you shot in JPEG, you can adjust the color in the image with Color Balance or Curves in Photoshop (though I don't know what Elements has).
Hope you don't mind but I did some quick adjustments to your image. I took out a lot of yellow and some red as well. It's still not perfect and you'd be better off changing the white balance. But this should give you an idea of what I'm taking about...
http://gcollier.com/14669.jpg
Your image has a bit of a sepia-tone feel to it, so I think that's why some people like the colors. But there definitely is a color cast...just up to you whether you like it that way or not.