Goblin's Lair (Revised)

It's such fun exploring a new area and finding a composition that you haven't seen photographed before!

Normally I prefer to blend manually, but when the dynamic range is extreme, I occasionally check to see what HDR software could produce. For the moment, I like the result. But next month I may look at it and wonder what I was thinking.

Do you find the processing results too extreme for your taste?

Even though this was shot with a 24mm at f16, the foreground was close enough to require a 3 image focus bracket (near, intermediate, and infinity). Each focus was bracketed with 3 exposures for 9 total images.

Note there is a larger image attached.

Here is the above image converted with Nik Silver Efex Pro 2.

Any preference?

Any critique would be appreciated.

I love the color of the first one. Com is great, exposure is spot on and focus looks good although web compression hurts it just a tiny bit...nothing you can do about that. Fine image in my opinion. I'm curious about focus stacking...what method you use and what you use to blend with.

Everything that Jack said and you really captured the "Wow" factor.
Beautiful image!!!
I prefer the color image...the DOF seems to work better...the blue sky pulls your eye into the distance.

Jack, when I have a near/far composition I check if everything is in focus at f16. I use manual focus. Frequently it just takes two images for most landscapes. For that, aligning and blending the two layers in Photoshop is simple. For macros, or complex landscapes that require more than two images, I really like Helicon Focus. It works wonders where the PS auto blending often produces "blotchy" results. I'm not into manually blending 9 images.

Wow that is cool! And a very unique perspective. Personally I think the HDR treatment is a little bit too much - I think if you could tone it down just a bit (especially along the edges of the photo) you could get more natural depth back into the photo. Right now it looks a bit flat because of the evenness of the HDR. Also, it's a spooky comp, so letting some black back in will accentuate that feeling, as if you were a mountain lion or an Anasazi ghost hiding in the cave.

Hi Bill,

I agree with Jack's suggestion. Also, I find the red colors a little strong (given the light) in the sandstone, especially noticeable on the left hand side. I found the easiest way of fixing this in PS is to add cyan to the red channel using the selective color tab. I hope this helps.

Hello Bill,

Right now I'm preferring the B&W. I'm not sure what it is about the colour image but it makes be uneasy, like actually physically uneasy.

Jack might be right with the HDR and perhaps toning it down a bit will help - for me it feels a lot like a composite image; three pictures stacked on top of one another - perhaps too much DOF ?!?!

Or I might just be OD'ing on the caffeine - it has been a long day.

I also like the unique perspective and agree with Jack's comments on augmenting the 'peek-a-boo' effect. Subtly burning down the edges would be a great asset in enhancing the effect.
I much prefer the color version because there simply aren't enough black/white points to contrast with all of the greys present for a successful b&w presentation. I realize the red glow is reflected light, but it doesn't fit well with the rest of the scene.

Id go for the color--but it's too 'hdr'. The strength of the image is the appearance of the bright bg through the 'windows', and that requires DR to be successful. You can still retain detail in the shadows while maintaining all the nice dynamics.

That's a crazy cool composition, Bill! The HDR is a wee bit too much for me. I like the suggestion to back the brightness down in the foreground a touch. I also prefer the color version and I don't think it needs much tweaking to be an absolute winner!

I'm really enjoying the comp, Bill. Looks like a fascinating place. I do agree with Jack B's, comments about the evenness of the HDR and about bringing in more blacks.

Thanks for the great input everyone. Hope this one doesn't make you physically ill, Aleksei.

I started from scratch, used a single exposure setting, but still blended a 3 image focus stack.
The edges have also been significantly darkend.

Is this tonal balance more to everyone's liking ?

Moving in the right direction for sure (the sunbeam coming in from the left is looking much more natural), but I'd still darken the foreground quite a bit. Really neat image, though, and definitely worth tinkering with until it's perfect.

OK, Jackson, is this what you had in mind ?
That's about a 3/4 stop gradient added to the base.

Interesting perspective and each revision is much better to me. Maybe add a little more contrast to the distant flats and ridge?

I really like the last one Bill. Thanks for doing that for me.

The last one looks much better, Bill. It's personal taste, but I think you could get away with boosting the saturation just a little bit. I wonder how a B&W of this version would work? (Sorry, I'm being picky. This really is a cool shot)

Yes, Bill, that looks pretty darn good tonality-wise to me, feels like looking out of a cave now. I agree with Paul about playing with the sat a bit more.

Really like what you did with the last one Bill, feels more like a 'cave' now even if it was lighter in real life. Really nice comp as well. I'd really like to get out to that area sometime.

The third one is almost exactly what I had in mind when I was making suggestions. Cut and print!

Liking the third one as well Bill. The tones here really give that "inside looking out" feeling. I'll second Doug's suggestion of popping just a pinch of contrast back into the flats, but really I'm nitpicking at this stage. Nice work.

Done!

I added a bit of saturation and tweaked the tonality in the flats.
The 20"x30" print looks good. I'll bring one to the Shindig on Saturday for your final blessing.

Thanks for taking the time to comment, everyone.