A little advice: if you ever go to Badlands National Park, plan on photographing it either early in the morning or late in the evening. During these periods, you see great colors and the light gives the hills some wonderful texture. Yet, during the middle of the day, the hills have no color and virtually seem to meld into each other. What a difference a little light makes.
Here I wanted to bring out the great colors before me—the yellows and magentas in the hills and the greens in the valleys. The sky was really secondary to the hills of the badlands.
I had about six f-stops difference between the sky and the hills, so I used a three stop graduated neutral density filter to bring the two exposures more in line with each other.
Just so I do not get any notes about it, I want everyone to know that I did level my camera before I made the photograph. The hills run from the high on the right to the low on the left. I decided to leave the horizon as it was rather than “correcting” it. What do you think is the right answer?
Enjoy.
Camera settings: Nikon D3, Nikon 28-70mm f/2.8 at 60mm, shot at ISO 200, f/16 and 1/30th of a second with a three stop graduated neutral density filter attached.
Post Processing:
Lightroom—Set white and black points, added mid-tone contrast, clarity.
Photoshop—used nik Color Efex Pro tonal contrast to add contrast to highlights, mid-tones and shadows of the hills.
Nice photo Patrick!
ReplyDeleteI like the composition a lot! The colors to me are a bit unreal. Admittedly I've never been to this location so I have no idea what the "reality" is here but I wonder if you intentionally pushed it toward the surreal? Or does an ND filter have that affect that to some extent? This is an interesting photo that I spent a while looking at and I do like it quite a bit, I'm just curious if part of your thought process when you decided to create the image “about the colors” was to make a conscious decision to push it toward the surreal. Or is the "reality" just naturally surreal?
Well done!
Barry
I have been to the Badlands at sunrise and can tell everyone that the colors are much like the photo show, depending on the light. You did select a fine place to photograph. The green valley adds a lot of interest and helps move the eye into the scene.
ReplyDeleteSteve
I think the dark blue clouds on the left horizon help balance it out, so I didn't notice at all that it was visually unlevel. I notice you're using an ND filter alot lately to expand dynamic range. Do you find that works better than bracketing and merging to an HDR?
ReplyDeleteI like the "real" horizon just as you shot it. The colors are great. I could sit and look at this for a long time. Well done.
ReplyDeleteAlso having visited the Badlands many times, I agree with Steve, these colors seem very real to me. I cannot see where you pushed them much. I do like all the contrasting colors and the rolling hills. Nice.
ReplyDeleteCharles M
What a beautiful landscape. I have never been to that part of the country and it looks like an extremely difficult environment. I cannot tell the scale of anything, no trees or roads or houses to help, it looks vast. I guess you couldn't talk JD into hiking a ways out there to provide some scale. The sky really helps to keep my eyes moving all around the image and while the colors are intense, they look natural to me. This shot could have been taken eons ago, it is timeless.
ReplyDeleteReally striking photo. I have never been there, but after seeing your photo, I just might book a trip tomorrow.
ReplyDeleteTed
I agree with Larry. I could look at this one for some time. It is a very pleasing photo. Makes me want to see the Badlands.
ReplyDeleteMel
My kind of landscape! I love this shot. Great color, compostion and exposure. I like the fact you used a Graduated ND filter instead of trying to fix it later in PS. This photo makes me want to go visit Badlands for more opportunities like this one.
ReplyDeleteNice shot Larry. Looks like an HDR to me. I like the color and the composition. Only suggestion I have is you might have considered a vignette to keep the viewer's eye from escaping at the brighter edges.
ReplyDelete-CGTTL