Image Critique - Slot Canyon - Reposts

Hi Everybody --

Been thinking alot about printing this up for the gallery at 16x20. Printed a proof and looks good but thought I'd get some feedback. I'm going for the 'old' look with the sepia but not sure if its too much. Not sure about the deep shadow on the left edge either... This photo is from Little Wild Horse Canyon at San Rafael Reef.

Thank you all;
Chris

I love the image but are you really deadset on the toned B/W? The shadow doesnt bug me since my eye is not fixated there as it moves through the image. Got a color version to compare with or a non-toned version?

RichieV

Love the composition! Might consider 'hiding' the footprints.
The shadowed area doesn't bother me at all. Tough to comment on the choice of sepia without seeing the original color version (although the sepia is certainly attractive here). Perhaps desaturated color would be the ticket?

I like it a lot! I too would be interested to see desaturated color, but the sepia does strongly evoke the feel of Uath canyon country for me. My only nit is the traces of footprints in the sand, always the bane of canyon photography. But they're far from deal-breaking. The comp is terrific, one of my favorites I've ever seen from this canyon.

Definitely lose the footprints, if they were distinct like on a wet sand beach, I would keep them. I like the sepia tone effect for this!

I like the comp, Chris. I'm not sure about the tone. I'm with the desaturation crowd. Also, this sepia might work better with less saturation. As is, it makes the rock look more like wood to me rather than 'old' at first glance. I really dig the texture that you captured!

Cool, thanks for the replies guys -- of course this will look different on everyone's displays, but yes its a bit toned... I'll knock it down a bit and then run the job.

Thanks Everyone!! Weather is shaping up finally!

I like the comp overall but the first thing I noticed was the colorizing effect. I'd either go total B/W or work back to the color version.

Also, you might try burning the lower right corner a bit; blending upward to the left. Might "contain" the comp more.

Nice capture!

Im with Nat here--the sepia looks odd, id go straight B&W or color as well. Fantastic shot, should make a great print!

Love the comp and the texture. I agree about a straight BW.

I like Sepia on old buildings etc but not on canyons. Its a great composition but I would probably go with B&W on this.

I like the sepia on this as the color is not too far off from the reddish sandstone you'd expect in a slot canyon. Not bothered by the dark spot either as it doesn't hinder how your eye moves through this comp. I would maybe second the advice about cloning the footprints though. It would be interesting to see how this prints on that metallic Kodak paper mpix has.

Re-post of straightup B-Dub...

Perhaps something in between?
This doesn't really have the wide range of tones to be completely successful as a straight b&w image.
On the positive side, you have a wonderful composition to work with and you did a great job eliminating those footprints.

You might get more feedback by editing your original title to read (+repost) or some such.

I'm not feeling the love in the straight B/W either. What does the original look lilke?

RichieV

Richie, here's a true-color reset. FYI it is a different crop, and the footprints exist..

I looked at this in PS (after cropping out the frame) and noticed that the white point in the histogram seemed to need adjusting (white slider left). After that, I gave it a contrast bump and that helped make it 'pop' a lot more.
Then I desaturated it a bit and added a vignette to help emphasize the curving bottom.

Just thought I'd toss out some ideas for you. Shoot me an email if you'd like to see those results. Hope I'm not being annoying....I really do think that this is well worth printing large with just a bit more work.

Thanks John for the offer, but I ran the printjob today on the 7880 in full monochrome and in my opinion looks great. It's going into a huge 32x40 black wood frame with an 8-ply white rag mat. Classic black & white presentation.

Thanks guys, really appreciate the comments and critiques!