The Wave in Utah, shot while on the 2nd annual Red Rock GTG. I used the blue and gold circular polarizer by Singh Ray. I put the camera on the end of a monopod, set the timer to 5 seconds, walked around and took several low perspective shots.
I processed this on my laptop using only Nikon Capture NX because my computer (along with my Photoshop) is undergoing an overhaul and an oil change.
PP steps were levels, slight desat in the sky (that polarizer is a little strong), added some warmth, used color control point a couple times to adjust some bright and dark areas, unsharp mask, and resized for DPC.
I hope not too many of us entered shots of The Wave.
Statistics
Place: 13 out of 573 Avg (all users): 6.9278 Avg (commenters): 8.3846 Avg (participants): 6.8306 Avg (non-participants): 7.1429 Views since voting: 2797 Views during voting: 340 Votes: 180 Comments: 21 Favorites: 6 (view)
Now this is so dam good, everthing one sees in this is great.
Excellent lines, strong color, re contrast between the sky and the earth.
This just stands alone, and very pleased it did so well for you.....
Thanks Melanie and the Critique Club for the comments. To answer your question, yes, that's exactly what I did. The camera was upside down on the end of my monopod with the timer set to 5 seconds so that I could "compose" the shot based on where the lens seemed to be aimed. I did this while exiing The Wave because the rest of the GTG were leaving to get the passes to the others in the GTG. I didn't have much time to take a large number of shot like I normally do, but at least a couple came out pretty good without the need to crop the shot. A level horizon didn't even matter here either which made this even easier than others that I have done.
I first started doing this low perspective type of shots from my kayak with the Sony F707 which had a swivel body so that I could see the LCD screen. When I decided to go DSLR, I had to accept that I would no longer have an LCD to compose with and knew that I would just have to "wing it". I have gotten better at it with practice, but really I just take a lot of shots and keep varying the aim of the lens and the horizontal tilt of the of the camera body. I've thought about getting the right angle viewfinder attachments that I've seen advertised or even an 8 inch level or two.
As far as the colors in the shot go, especially the sky, they are actually more saturated than I like because of that blue and gold polarizer that I was using. I decided to go with it because others in the GTG were somewhat impressed after giving it a try. I tried it again out there after not having used it for more than a year because of the exaggerated effect. But, after I hiked out through the desert to The Wave, I was actually too lazy to change to a normal polarizer even though I knew that I should. Couple that with the limitations of post processing on my laptop without Photoshop and that's why the colors are a bit off.
Considering everything, I am very happy with my entry's placement in this challenge. Thank you, and all other commenters for taking the time on my image.
After reading your comments... does that mean that you didn't even compose this shot, but that it was just luck that the shutter happened to click at that 5 second interval and this is what it captured? If that's the results you can achieve with that method, perhaps I better stop looking through the viewfinder, and start randomly clicking! (And after looking at your profile and your highest scoring shot, it seems you weren't looking through the viewfinder THERE either!)
The composition is lovely with the lines that draw you in. I don't want to see more of any one part, or less of another. The colors are wonderful, though as one commenter noted, the blue sky is almost too flat. But what can you do when there is nothing in the sky to bring out? I find that one spot right where the blue goes the lowest to be a bit difficult to focus on, since the contrast of the colors is so bold. But really, such a minor nitpick.
You did a fabulous job on this one... and the voters all agreed! Only 18 votes under a 6, and 13th place out of 572. Impressive.
Please feel free to PM me if you have any questions!
One of the great landscape photo ops of the world. I suspect your polarizer was as much responsible for the deep blue sky as post processing. Nicely composed.
I like the composition and intensity of the orange/red colors. However, for me the sky seems to lack an atmospheric quality to it. Not sure if that's because it was saturated or not but it looks more like it's a generic background replacement than the real thing.
Sure wish we could have made this one. Very nice shot. There aren't many places in the world that you can get a shot like this. The perfectly focused lines work well to pull my eye into the frame. Even beyond a perfect place for shooting, you composed this one nicely as well. Was it worth the 3 miles through the desert?
Add photograph to your favorites
Add photographer to your favorites
Photographer found comment helpful.
