The Curtains of Lipan

The mid-April storm brought several inches of snow and a couple of feet of wind to the Grand Canyon. I joined Adam Schallau on the south rim to take in the weather Saturday and Sunday. I did not believe anything was going to happen Sunday morning when we went to Adam's super secret point on the east rim, but the curtains of clouds parted and rose to reveal a nice show.

#2 Pipe Dream
We stopped at Pipe Creek on the way back to the village and Yavapai Point.
Stitch of two 12mm horizontal images in PSE9

#3 Blue Canyon
Sunday evening included a backlit snowsquall.
Adam should have a nice telephoto image to post.

As always, any critiques and suggestions are welcome.

Ouch, that large image appears grossly over sharpened. Of the 3 posted, I'm not a fan of the first 2 but the 3rd one is nice.

I love the layering in #3.
I bet a telephoto of the clouds and ridges on the left would be quite dramatic.

Jack- thanks for the feedback. Sharpening for web is what I am uncertain of. For the first image, I resized the processed, already sharpened image from about 4000px to 3000px, autosharpened once, resized to 2000px, autosharpened once, and resized to 1200 and saved for web. Is the the smaller rocks/gravel in the foreground what appears oversharpend to you?

Bill, as you mentioned, the left side was nice through a telephoto and I hope Adam posts one of his shots that he showed me on his LCD.

Question about panos- to me #2, like some other pano stitches I have done, appears pinched/compressed to me. Do you resize the length only as a standard step in processing the pano, and are there also some transform steps one should incorporate? I have not resized the length of #2 any. Thanks.

Doug, I use a sharpening action by Alex Nail that works well for me...check this website and you can download the action for free:

http://www.alexnail.com/blog/tutorials/resize-and-sharpen-for-web/

They're all outstanding images, each with unique qualities. You made the capture, which is the most important part - dial in the sharpening and you've got three winning images and a story. For unsharp mask: Go 75% with a .3 radius and 0 threshold. For Nik (on display mode): Adjust the slider to around 25%.

Hi Doug,

Great captures. I'd say I prefer #3, 2, 1 in that order. The first image looks soft on the left hand side. I think the background looks appropriately sharpened and that you could mask out the sharpening on the fg rocks. The second one I wish there was a little more sky - although the overall effect is very col. The third one has the most mood and best shapes.

Michael

A little more work as suggested on sharpening for web, but these are all nice shots. And, they will probably make fine prints as well.

Jack and Dave- thanks for the sharpening info. The action looks similar to what Marc Adamus wrote about sharpening for web.
Michael and Morris- I think the left side sharpness of the #1 is a lense issue, so that may preclude any prints. Tokina just gave the lens a clean bill of health, but guess the doctor had a missed diagnosis.

Hi Doug,
I had a great time shooting with you at the canyon! I look froward to doing it again sometime soon. I agree with the comments that the others have made. It's a shame that your Tokina isn't performing as well as it should.

Some nice vantages in 1 & 2, but the color's a bit dull. Love number 3 tho.

Nice series, Doug.
#3 is my favorite and it doesn't appear 'pinched' to me at all.
#1 could use a slight saturation boost as Stan noted, while the light in #2 isn't really that hot.

What is 'autosharpened'? That almost sounds scary.
And 'a couple of feet of wind'?

Nice series. Like 'em all.