Things Get White in the Wash

[AlanLichty]

A number of years ago I took a drive through Cottonwood Wash in the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument and got a number of images of various geological oddities that pop up along the side of the road. Several of those images are nice portraits of the local geology but don't really feel like a landscape image I know quite what to do with. This is one of those captures of an oddball formation of white soils and rocks that don't really match what's around them but I have never figured out what I can do with the shot.

Here is a clean version of the image using my usual processing:

I am interested in whether someone else can come up with a way to make this more interesting and am including a 3000 pixel wide jpeg that is straight out of the camera to play with if you are so inclined.

Cottonwood Wash

• AlanLichty
• Feb 12, 2020

I am interested in seeing what others can come up with for this roadside capture.

Edit - fixed the 3000 pixel SOOC shot.

 

[JimFox]

Very interesting Alan. I like these roadside attractions and will often stop myself for them. I have a couple of ideas on how to make that formation stand out, but I won’t be able to get to any editing until later.

 

[JimFox]

Alan, you need to post the original in the Critique Gallery in order for it to stay 3000 pix. When posting in here it gets downsized to 1200pix.

 

[AlanLichty]

Fixed. Thnx.

 

[JimFox]

Here is mine. Darkening the background to help the formation stand out some, and then some clarity add to the formation.

 

[Terry Farrow]

An interesting feature to see using your format Alan but can see how Jim has made it stand out.

 

[Jameel Hyder]

I like Jim’s approach of darkening the background. I might go further and crop a bit tighter and lose the partial rock from the right.

 

[AlanLichty]

I like the darkened background as well.

 

[JimFox]

I like Jim’s approach of darkening the background. I might go further and crop a bit tighter and lose the partial rock from the right.

Thanks Jameel, I thought about cropping, but thought it might move the formation too close to the edges. I did darken the partial formation along with the background to help it blend in a little bit.

 

[Ben Egbert]

I have stopped along that road for the same reasons. Hard to get a composition anywhere. The way I approach and image like this that is well exposed, is to see what I want to keep and what I don't want and then crop or clone as required using my standard processing. About the only things I use processing for it to bring out sharpness, refine exposure and saturation and maybe adjust the brightness. I seek to make it look like a Kodachrome.

In this case I did that and cropped and added a vignette.

 

[AlanLichty]

My version with the current inputs.

I went a little darker in the background than Ben or Jim but I may have taken that just a bit too far. Still scratching my head over a workable composition - this doesn't quite thrill me at the moment.

 

[Ben Egbert]

I like it Alan. The rock pops now. I did not darken the background, should have.

 

[Jameel Hyder]

My version with the current inputs.

View attachment 25274

I went a little darker in the background than Ben or Jim but I may have taken that just a bit too far. Still scratching my head over a workable composition - this doesn't quite thrill me at the moment.

Looks good Alan - or atleast as good as it can. I have things similar but end up leaving it unprocessed.

 

[Mike Lewis]

So wanted to find original posted image, assumed it was an Album in gallery called critique (based on Jim's comment above.) Did not see an efficient way to search for that, scrolled through all the 14 pages of albums, did not see it. I am sure I am making this way harder than it really is.

How do I access Alan's 2000 pix original image so I can partake in this?

ML

 

[AlanLichty]

So wanted to find original posted image, assumed it was an Album in gallery called critique (based on Jim's comment above.) Did not see an efficient way to search for that, scrolled through all the 14 pages of albums, did not see it. I am sure I am making this way harder than it really is.

How do I access Alan's 2000 pix original image so I can partake in this?

ML

The 3000 pixel wide version is the second image at the top of the thread Jump in and play.

 

[Jameel Hyder]

So wanted to find original posted image, assumed it was an Album in gallery called critique (based on Jim's comment above.) Did not see an efficient way to search for that, scrolled through all the 14 pages of albums, did not see it. I am sure I am making this way harder than it really is.

How do I access Alan's 2000 pix original image so I can partake in this?

ML

the second image in Alan’s original post. Just download that and try.

 

[JimFox]

My version with the current inputs.

View attachment 25274

I went a little darker in the background than Ben or Jim but I may have taken that just a bit too far. Still scratching my head over a workable composition - this doesn't quite thrill me at the moment.

I might leave a little more headspace on this, but I do like both yours and Ben's cropping off that smaller formation on the right. I was afraid it would be too much, but it looks good.