The Road to Moab

[Guy Mancuso]

Espresso did not kick in this morning. LOL

 

[Bob]

Much better!
-bob

 

[scatesmd]

I am just now getting to processing some of the photos from Moab. At the risk of being redundant, here are a few more. Thanks to Guy and Jack for letting me participate and thanks to Doug for his help with C1.

I tried to shoot some of the canyons at Chinle as HDRs, but found they really didn't look right at all. The shot of the Petrified Forest is an HDR attempt.

On the way back, on Sunday, my father and I were in some small bar in AZ when he loudly asked if anyone else had bet on Pitts. to win. I didn't think we'd get out of there alive after the owner told him that we would be allowed to eat only so someone would be around after the game to beat up.

Thanks, steve

 

[Cindy Flood]

Steve,
I really like #2. I hope that you print it and hang it. The light is beautiful.

On the way back, on Sunday, my father and I were in some small bar in AZ when he loudly asked if anyone else had bet on Pitts. to win. I didn't think we'd get out of there alive after the owner told him that we would be allowed to eat only so someone would be around after the game to beat up.

:ROTFL::ROTFL::ROTFL: Those Cardinal fans were taking the game seriously!

 

[eleanorbrown]

Wonderful images Steve. What camera and processing software did you use? I'll be going to Zion middle of March and look forward to photographing all that red rock once again also! Eleanor

 

[Guy Mancuso]

Steve uses the M8 and now C1 Pro. He upgraded in Moab to the Pro version as well as a few other folks. Hard to resist C1 Pro after all the cool tricks Doug , Jack and I showed.

 

[scatesmd]

Hi Cindy,

Thanks for your comments. As the initial notice said, this workshop was about taking pictures and I have 9 gigs of photos to go thru!

Eleanor,

Guy is correct. I'm using an M8 with C1 Pro. I still have a bit to learn about the best way to handle file organization with C1, as it creates a folder in every folder (not as bad as an infinite regression, but I have to watch where the processed files land). I really like the color from C1, though, and I think re-learning the workflow is worth it.

I posted the petrified forest photo more as an example what didn't work for me. The dynamic range was high, so I shot an HDR and I don't really like it here. It looks better on my screen than it does on the web, but still not right. In Chinle, there were issues with color shifts in the snow that I couldn't correct for easily: white in the sun, quite blue in the shade. There are exceptions (one of Guy's early posts has an HDR of mine of the river looping thru the canyons that I liked), but C1 alone seems to handle any of the shots with significant snow or cloud movement much better than the HDR software.

Thanks, steve

 

[Woody Campbell]

Hi Cindy,

Thanks for your comments. As the initial notice said, this workshop was about taking pictures and I have 9 gigs of photos to go thru!

Eleanor,

Guy is correct. I'm using an M8 with C1 Pro. I still have a bit to learn about the best way to handle file organization with C1, as it creates a folder in every folder (not as bad as an infinite regression, but I have to watch where the processed files land). I really like the color from C1, though, and I think re-learning the workflow is worth it.

I posted the petrified forest photo more as an example what didn't work for me. The dynamic range was high, so I shot an HDR and I don't really like it here. It looks better on my screen than it does on the web, but still not right. In Chinle, there were issues with color shifts in the snow that I couldn't correct for easily: white in the sun, quite blue in the shade. There are exceptions (one of Guy's early posts has an HDR of mine of the river looping thru the canyons that I liked), but C1 alone seems to handle any of the shots with significant snow or cloud movement much better than the HDR software.

Thanks, steve

Steve - Your HDR of petrified forest actually looks great - what software are you using and what settings?

I find that my HDRs often come out flat looking - this is actually a good place to start in Photoshop. A couple of remedies are possible in Photoshop - add a curves layer with a fair amount of S in it - dragging the darker values back toward where they started before HDR (but not all of the way - leaving shadow detail) and ditto highlights. What you are doing in effect is trying to mimic the original tonal values in the scene, but using HDR to prevent the shadows from blocking and the highlights from blowing. You could also use masked adjustments layers to darken areas that are meant to be dark and to lighten areas that are meant to be light. You could also use a mask to lessen the contrast of the sky.

Regards,

Woody

 

[scatesmd]

Hi Woody,

Thanks for your kindness! The issue I had with that photo was moving clouds and Photomatix and Dynamic HDR did not handle it well. I ended up using the Separator HDR merge function of FDRTools to deal with it as best I could. I originally increased the global contrast in the image more than what you see, but some abnormal colors appeared on top of the logs when I pushed it too far.

I have another HDR from the forest I'll upload in a minute that looked pretty natural. In the meantime, here are 2 more photos from the drive, a dead car in the desert and a dead train car in Winslow.

Thanks, steve

 

[scatesmd]

Hi Woody,

Here is the other HDR form the Petrified Forest. There was no sky to be moving and the software handled it better.

Thanks, steve

 

[scatesmd]

Here are a few more: The White House as the sun started to light it up, early morning time exposure of Monument Valley, and Park Avenue early am.

Thanks, steve

 

[scatesmd]

I was fortunate Doug helped me take my first photo with a technical camera P45+ back. This arch file is a 4 photo stitch of 600 MB.

steve

 

[Mike Hatam]

What a great trip! I had a fantastic time shooting with everyone, exploring new territory, and sharing some lightroom tips.

I finally got time to process some of my images. I'll start by uploading some of my "people shots" - these are shots of our workshop participants in action in the field (and other fun places).

#1 - Sedona: Jack, Joe, and Guy (along with two other visitors) overlook the town of Sedona while we wait for the light to break.

#2 - Sedona: Guy works his magic with the Mamiya 300

#3 - Sedona: Jack (with Bob in the background) sharing a joke to keep us warm while we wait for the light

#4 - Petrified Forest: Mike surveys the lunar landscape for his next shot

#5 - Petrified Forest: Jack, Bob, and Guy - working on "the perfect composition"

 

[MikeScecina]

:thumbs: Beautiful capture and stitch, Steve.

 

[Mike Hatam]

More people shots...

#1 - Petrified Forest - Workshop participants explore this mysterious place.

#2 - Petrified Forest - Woody and Bob brave the wind to capture their shot

#3 - Arches - Jack with Steve and Guy, shooting Balance Rock

#4 - Arches - Jack giving some tips on composition of this scene

#5 - Arches - Guy goes vertical

 

[Mike Hatam]

These five shots are all from "Double Arch" in Moab (Arches National Park).

Howard ventured up to the bridge that separates the two arches to look through the window. You can also see Reynolds, and Doug, as we're all trying to figure out how to get Howard down

 

[Mike Hatam]

#1 - Arches - Howard shooting in the "Park Avenue" canyon

#2 - Arches - Reynolds surveys the beauty of Park Avenue

#3 - Arches - Howard, as we're nearing the end of the Park Avenue canyon hike

#4 - Twin Rock Cafe (southern Utah) - Guy and Bob enjoy a much needed rest and libation.

#5 - Monument Valley - We reached the park about 90 minutes before sunset, and make a mad "road rally" dash around the park to get in as much shooting as possible. In this shot, the first two cars (of a 5-car caravan) reach a new spot, and jump out quickly to start shooting. That's Jack in the green T-shirt, looking for a different angle.

 

[MikeScecina]

"Whatcha got there, Reynolds?"

 

[Terry]

Steve and MIke,
I just tuned back into to this thread and whoa these are great shots.

Steve the color in the last shot of post 183 is fabulous!

 

[Mike Hatam]

OK, now time to post some of my shots from the trip. The challenge here is to post a perspective or composition that hasn't already been shown. Tough to do, when you're shooting with about a dozen extremely talented photographers.

#1 - Petrified Forest - 28 Cron on the M8

#2 - Canyon De Chelly - Pano

#3 - Canyon De Chelly - morning after a snowfall

#4 - Canyon De Chelly - "Spider Rock"

#5 - Arches - Valley View