Zion NP Shot Repost (PLEASE Disregard the First Image)

Nov 3rd update: Please disregard all of the images except the last one at the bottom of this thread. For some reason, Save for Web in PS CS6 is doing something with the colorspace and it ends up saturating the image terribly AFTER it gets uploaded and shown in a browser (what on earth did Adobe change now?? ). The last image I posted below was done with manual conversion to sRGB and manual save to JPEG. Please scroll down let me know if it looks better (less saturated) than the top image. Color management is one frustrating topic, lol.

Thanks!







=====================================================================
Two weeks ago I posted a frantic plea to know where to go for a sunset shot SOMEWHERE in the maze of amazing NP's strewn all over Utah. I was driving to SLC for a business trip (drove so I could Stop 'n Shoot along the way, lol). My pick was Bryce, because, it was Bryce. But Mark Hespenheide and Karl Buiter made it clear that Bryce is better suited for sunrises and that I should consider Zion.

OK, intro over. I did go for Zion, I basically did the tourist thing and drove Kolob Canyon Road to the end. The parking lot didn;t seem to provide the best POV IMO, so I drove back to the curve that leads up to the lot and poked around for a decent vantage point. The light wasn't great, it was overcast in the west covering the sun, but I saw some sunlight break through WAY down the valley looking south, so I decided to stay planted with the hopes that the sun would illuminate the clouds enough to light the canyon nice and golden. It did, and it lasted 4 minutes, but WOW, what a beautiful 4 minutes that was. I can't say I captured the Glory as good as I wanted to, but here's my best attempt. Nonetheless, standing there in that view and not being in an office writing software was priceless, shot or no shot.

C&C desired, I'd like to know what doesn't quite work, that helps me greatly. Thanks!

Ugh, something weird happening... I have a calibrated monitor and use Safari for Win7 and Windows Photo Viewer, BOTH which are color managed apps, yet when I uploaded this image it got soaked with red.

Here's the image in the browser, and below that is how it looks on my PC in Photo Viewer (and Photoshop of course). Need to figure this out...

OK, THIS is how the image was supposed to look. NOW you guys & gals can tear it apart for me.

Now you're talking. I just thought you liked the color red. While I don't feel that I am qualified to give an unbiased critique (after all, who really is given that we all have our preferences), I would not open the shadows as you'll probably hear 1,450 people tell you. I like letting my eyes wonder around the image. Nice.

It has a bit too much of the "pastel HDR" look for my liking. I can see visible haloing around the rock formation and the tree in the UR corner. Sorry for being harsh, just not a fan of this type of HDR.

Exactly what Joshua said. As soon as I saw this I thought that it was over 'developed'. This shows a fine viewpoint composed very nicely. Well worth starting from scratch, IMO.

Yeah, I admit that bothered me too. The initial HDR compositie doesn't look it, I usually strive to NOT do that. But I added a psuedo Orton effect which emphasized the halos more than expected, and I lazily tried to ignore it. And even with the repost it is now looking still too saturated to me, even the original.

I'll take John's advice and head back to the beginning. Thanks guys!

Paul, late to the game here but I agree with what's been said, however show us the REDO, I want you this image to feel right with you.

I will! Swamped tonight but will revisit in the next day or two. Thanks!