A Bisti Scene

Are we waiting for Spring or what?

Here’s an image from last July I shot at the Bisti Badland Wilderness in New Mexico. I finally had the post processing patience to have a go with this complicated image.

I shot Bisti during the Monsoon and this was one of my last shots I took that trip. I had been totally enamored with the fantastic cloud conditions for two days, thus I shot this one concentrating on the sky, when I should have zoomed a bit and picked up more of the whimsical hoodoo action going on throughout the scene. I had a lot more success shooting intimates that trip and this is one of a few grand scenic’s that I shot. Because it’s so wide, and I’m presenting this image to you at only 800 pixels wide, I suppose I’m looking for some feedback from you based on the overall comp. Regardless if this image was meant to be printed huge to view with clarity of the fun hoodoos, I still think a strong overall comp is what I’m looking for.

This one was a pain in the butt to finalize. I spent maybe 6 hours trying to pull it off. It's 4 vertical images across with a 24mm tilt shift. Those 4 images where hand blended to match for the stitch. Each of those images I shifted down to pick up more foreground with additionl shots. Those "additional" foreground shots had to be stitched to their parent “upper” shots. Then I stitched the final 8 images together in Ptgui. Afterwards I worked in selective color’s, selective curves and made a few crops to finalize.

Overall, I’m on the fence with this one. Considering if this one makes my site it will still be presented to potential clients as you are seeing it, regardless of how nice it appears “Big.” So what are your thoughts?

Kane

I say get off the fence and get it on your site! I'd be enamored with that light too. It is a stunning image Kane, great light, beautiful panorama vista and a ton of detail throughout. Definitely well worth the time you put into it.

Only thing I could maybe point out is on the large image at the horizon there is a light band on the right side of the image that may, or may not be haloing, hard to say at this image size.

I agree with Scott. Excellent conditions and subject, what's not to like here!

Kane, I am looking at this on my new, calibrated 27" Apple Display and all I can say is WOW! Awesome colors and your usual great comp and use of blends to bring out all this has to offer. It is way cool to finally look at images on a "good" monitor

This is one of those images that get better the larger it gets. In the larger image I already wanted to start crawling around the hoodoos, I can't imagine what I would do if I was looking at a huge print!

Great sky, impressive processing. The high resolution should make a superb print.
However, as a small web image, it would probably be overlooked in favor of your other truly outstanding work.

I think it is a terrific image. I'm not sure if it would sell though or garner much attention on your website as there isn't a clear area of focus. However, if they actually saw it printed large, they would quickly get lost in it. I certainly appreciate it!

I agree with Erik on the comp. Im not totally sold on the pp--i can buy the fg and sky separately, but side by side there is a bit of a disconnect--sort of HDRish--maybe less blue in the sky or more blue in the fg would help (help me, at any rate)

Erik's observations are spot on and I agree with every word. And I think that the 'development' is very good myself. Yes, the landscape is a bit bright for the time of day that this was taken, but I think that's more of a photographer's observation than anything, as this looks pretty darned good to me.

Works for me, Kane! I like the blue/gold contrast, and the area of black shale really helps the comp hold together. As far as presentation goes, I'd say if you're looking to sell prints, as opposed to stock, err on the side of a larger web version. I'd love to see the full detail in this one!

Thanks for the comments. As expected, some of you feel the same as I do. Erik in particular points out my exact feelings with this image. I think its an important topic when it comes to composing images that may or may not appeal to others online.

Erik hit the nail on the head with this one, Kane. And, it looks like it was exactly what you expected. Your personal experience here probably resonates strongly with you when you view this one. I am with the others when they state that this one would need to be viewed as a huge print to get the full impact. And, I can see what Stan says as well, but it still works for me.

Quite a stunning image for sure. Images at that scale for web viewing are difficult to appreciate as much until printed. The only thing that stuck me right away was the color of the sky. On my monitor is has a very strong purple cast, which I would expect more toward the horizon but maybe not as much toward the top of the image? Frankly, not being there, I don't know what the scene really looked like. But that doesn't mean it distracts from the image. Your stitching was very good!

At this size, my thoughts echo other's about lacking a major item of interest, but too feel this would have more effect printed large to get sucked into the details. Were you able to get down to those wings also and have them against this nice sunset?