I wanted to share the SW desert as a subject that Adams would have shot. The wide panorama, plus the detail of the arch, and the wonderful lighting all worked together to make this shot a possible contender. I hope others enjoy it.
Used Photomatrix to convert 3 exposures, tone mapped and opened in PS4. Cloned out all the awful dust on my sensor. Transfer to B/W, Levels, S/H, Curve, size and sharpened with PKSharpener. Saved for web
Expected 6.2
Hoped 7.1 - just because I'd like a new high score ;-)
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Whahoooo! I really didn't expect a ribbon, even with the 7+ score. After 2 7+ scores without a ribbon and seeing the high scores from the last Adams challenge, I was hoping for an HM. Thanks for all the votes and interest. Thanks, too, to Zeuss for suggesting a trip to Yosemite which led me to Moab and the Arch. Here is the color HDR , just tone mapped & dust removed.
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Place: 3 out of 219 Avg (all users): 7.0458 Avg (commenters): 7.8333 Avg (participants): 6.8929 Avg (non-participants): 7.1282 Views since voting: 5793 Views during voting: 420 Votes: 240 Comments: 48 Favorites: 12 (view)
VERY nice, Becky! Really makes it worth getting up so early! Wonderful to see the detail in the arch and that amazing light reflecting all around. As usual, You ROCK!
Beautiful shot(s) Becky! Great job with the HDR. I never made it out to Mesa Arch when I was down last time so I'll have to put it on the list for next time. Congrats on the ribbon.
Congratulations Becky!! I know exactly how you felt with two 7+ scores and that didn't ribbon. I love this image and thought this would actually take first.
I have been in that exact spot, what people who have never been don't realize is that if you were to walk through that arch you would fall 2000 feet straight down! You pulled alot of range out of those three images. Congrats on the yellow.
There's a LOT to like in this image, but it hasn't reached its fullest potential. I have basically two issues:
1. Overall the landscape tones are muddy, local area contrast is needed. Not a lot more, but some. If you look at it analytically, you'll realize that there's nearly as much contrast on the back of the arch as there is on the landscape itself, and that's just unnatural.
2. There's a basic sense of the two primary backlit portions of the image (the foreground and the arch) being "outlined" by lighter tonalities: see how the lightest portion of the near landscape is following the outline of the foreground rocks? And ditto the sky above the arch. It leaves the impression that you were dodging the arch and the rocks, and the dodging overlapped into the landscape and the sky. Even if this isn't the case, that's what it looks like, and it's a flaw, although not a seriously disturbing one. That is to say, the haloing is diffuse enough to not be totally distracting.
Withal, a strong entry and one of my good-scoring choices.
Mesa Arch Morning
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