Grand Canyon

[TristanP]

We were at the GC on Christmas Eve in 2003. It was nice seeing snow on the ground. I only had my DSC-P5 at the time and I took a bunch of shots, but I was not wise in the ways of photography. Do these do anything for you, either the composition or the processing?

http://home.comcast.net/~sarahpanek/stf/gc1_small.jpg

http://home.comcast.net/~sarahpanek/stf/gc2_small.jpg

[GREAPER]

I like them, The first one is better, IMHO, the composition is good, but the colors could use just a little pop, On the other hand thae pastel look is attractive.

[Ann McRae]

The first is very nice - the dh wants to go to the canyon for a vacation soon - I am starting to see why! However, I know that my itinerary would be much different from the rest of the families!:1drink

[handlebar]

The first phot is great I really like the snow on the grand canyon it is gorgeous wish I could go there. What month were those taken in?:clap

[blackwaterstudio]

The first phot is great I really like the snow on the grand canyon it is gorgeous wish I could go there. What month were those taken in?:clap GC on Christmas Eve in 2003 :D

[NoNo]

I like them, The first one is better, IMHO, the composition is good, but the colors could use just a little pop, On the other hand thae pastel look is attractive.I went there last May, and my pictures came out looking the same way. There was a lot of pollution then, so the haze faded anything in the distance. I tried playing with the colors a little bit, but found that it made it look worse. As you said, though, the pastel look gives it a certain feel. It's almost like a painting instead of a photo.

[TristanP]

I like them, The first one is better, IMHO, the composition is good, but the colors could use just a little pop, On the other hand thae pastel look is attractive.You shoulda seen the originals - blech. Plus, the day started out very cloudy and foggy. I did a USM of 20/50/0 to reduce the haze before anything else. I only did a slight bump on the saturation, in addition to levelling, minor curves and a final USM. Do you think it could stand a bit more saturation?

[USAIR]

Good shots
I also like the first one best

Wow a river did that?:rofl

Thanks
Fred

[pathfinder]

You shoulda seen the originals - blech. Plus, the day started out very cloudy and foggy. I did a USM of 20/50/0 to reduce the haze before anything else. I only did a slight bump on the saturation, in addition to levelling, minor curves and a final USM. Do you think it could stand a bit more saturation?


Shooting in the SouthWest can be challenging - the haze in the air from the extreme distances involved creates a bluish haze to the image. UV haze filters and/or polarized filters can help quite a bit. If it has been raining and there is water vapor in the air that can cause haze too. Both of these can be improved with some photoshopping as you stated. Saturation, curves, and overlay blending were all used in these images taken at Dead Horse State Park and Grand Canyon
Winter can be a great time to shoot the Grand Canyon, but the roads may be closed due to snow on the North Rim. The white snow on the red rock creates gorgeous vistas.

Dead Horse State Park between intermittent rain
http://pathfinder.smugmug.com/photos/4411339-L.jpg

Grand Canyon on a relatively clear day
http://pathfinder.smugmug.com/photos/14930990-L.jpg

[Dee]

I used the USM 20/50/0 not once, but three times, then I went to image/adjust/hue saturation. I couldn't get an overall color I liked, so I went into each individual channel and bumped up the saturation except in green where I went all the way to the left to get rid of the green.

The clouds lost some of their softness, but I could have done the adjustment on an adjustment layer and made a mask, and brought out the original clouds.

This was just a quick try to get some better color for you. At least you can see an available option. Hope it was all right to "borrow" your photo.

[Tim Kirkwood]

Tristan,


I do like these alot. I hope to get to see the GC someday. They do seem a bit soft though, maybe a little more post work could help them out a bit.

[GREAPER]

A quick edit from me, Just to throw out an idea....

[GREAPER]

and a slightly darker version....

[TristanP]

Thanks for the suggestions guys. I'll give it another try this weekend. Ideally I'd like to balance the results between what I think I remember seeing and what looks good to the viewer. I have some footage from my video camrea - maybe I'll pull that out and refresh my memory as to the actual conditions.

[TristanP]

Ok, how's this? Layer of 3x USM 20/50/0 to reduce haze with clouds masked off, layer for levels, layer for Hue/Sat with blend mode set to Multiply at 40% opacity, and finally a USM on the whole thing at 250/0.6/0. This is a Bicubic Sharper image resize for web viewing run through Neat Image.

http://home.comcast.net/~sarahpanek/stf/gc3_small.jpg

[GREAPER]

A matter of taste, But I like it much more than the original. Nicely done.

Actually, I just looked through this thread again and I think it speaks well of the image that you took. I like every version of this photo that has been posted. They all have something.

[TristanP]

A matter of taste, But I like it much more than the original. Nicely done.Thanks, me too. Amazing what a little 3 MP P&S can capture when massaged with Photoshop. I think the kicker was the Multiply layer.

[hansok]

I like both pics a lot. It's one of the most fantastic places on earth. The first picture is very impressive with the snow and the clouds but I like the second better because I can see the river that caused all the beauty.

Hans