Fire in the Valley

Gallery: LandscapePosted January 28, 2011749 views19 comments

Actually, the title is "Fire in the Valley of Fire" - but the whole thing wouldn't fit in the Title box. :)

Valley of Fire State Park, Nevada
Canon EOS 7D with 10-22mm lens at 10mm
with a Graduated Neutral Density Filter
4 seconds at f/16

The final image is from a single exposure. I processed it twice - once for the sky and once for the foreground, then combined the two images in Photoshop using our manual iHDR technique. This was a relatively easy shot to process, since the range of light wasn't too extreme.

Those crazy colors in the sky enhanced the already ridiculous colors of the stone in the Valley of Fire. You should have seen me out there - surrounded by leading lines... none of which led towards the sunset! I was scrambling over the rocks like a crazed chipmunk.

I pounced on these when I found them at last, and took just a few shots before the colors faded.

All comments and critiques are greatly appreciated! Thanks everyone!

Comments

19 comments

Comment posted by Bill Chambers on January 28, 2011 at 3:52 PM

Beautiful image Varina. Love the comp and the intense color. There does seem to be a tinge of halo along the ridgeline though.

Registered on April 10, 2005, 753 Posts, 21216 Comments

Comment posted by Robert Dayton on January 28, 2011 at 3:56 PM

Excellent, Varina! The lines and colors make this work.

Registered on November 11, 2008, 281 Posts, 3958 Comments

Comment posted by Varina Patel on January 28, 2011 at 4:04 PM

Uh oh - you're right, Bill! Looks like a sharpening artifact. I'd better go tweak my PS action.

Thanks to both of you for your kind words. I appreciate it!

Registered on August 22, 2008, 45 Posts, 1578 Comments

Comment posted by Rick Lundh on January 28, 2011 at 6:16 PM

Beautiful! Both the sky and the fg balances eachother out well...

Registered on April 28, 2004, 774 Posts, 4351 Comments

Comment posted by Doug Roane on January 29, 2011 at 2:54 AM

what a great sky, Varina, and interesting fg! I'm not sure about the WB of the land, though - seems a little warm to me, but a minor thing and more an issue of personal taste.

Registered on December 12, 2008, 213 Posts, 2226 Comments

Comment posted by Richard Hartmann on January 29, 2011 at 3:02 AM

Ha ha… don’t ya just hate scrambling for a shot as the nice light fades? It looks like you did well with this one.

Registered on January 15, 2009, 13 Posts, 772 Comments

Comment posted by Balakumar Kaushik on January 29, 2011 at 8:00 AM

Beautiful image with lovely colours. Very neatly composed frame. Liked the way the clouds are mimicking the FG rocks.
The blue regions (sky) in the centre look bit too dark when compared to the blue sky on either sides. It looks like a elliptical dark region.

Registered on January 4, 2008, 98 Posts, 1403 Comments

Comment posted by Dietrich Gloger on January 29, 2011 at 10:32 AM

Very elegantly composed Varina. The colors are intense, but I am not put off by them, it all looks organic and realistic. Excellent work!

Registered on January 26, 2007, 360 Posts, 9876 Comments

Comment posted by Steve Sieren on January 29, 2011 at 11:40 AM

Pretty moving scene Varina, the Valley gets a lot of intense sunsets like this!

Registered on January 2, 2008, 360 Posts, 5321 Comments

Comment posted by Varina Patel on January 29, 2011 at 5:12 PM

Thanks everyone! Although the blending was easy for this shot - choosing the color balance was tough. I wanted to accurately represent the color in the landscape... but when it looked the way I remembered it, it was awfully pink. When I cooled it down, it looked completely wrong. In the end, I chose the color balance that showed the scene as I remembered it... ridiculous colors and strange orange sand. That beautiful glow in the sky didn't help the color balance situation... it just made colors in the rocks even more intense!

Registered on August 22, 2008, 45 Posts, 1578 Comments

Comment posted by Nick Bristol on January 29, 2011 at 6:59 PM

Wow, what a view. Great comp with the foreground rocks and lines. Awesome colors. Very nice, Varina.

Nick Bristol
Lone Rock, WI

Registered on February 1, 2004, 752 Posts, 14140 Comments

Comment posted by Zack Clothier on January 30, 2011 at 1:14 AM

Wonderful image, love the warm tones and the intense sky!

Registered on January 28, 2010, 343 Posts, 2257 Comments

Comment posted by Alex Mody on January 30, 2011 at 5:45 AM

Insane light, echoed by a nice colored and patterned FG. Epic desert-scape!

Registered on December 25, 2007, 163 Posts, 1896 Comments

Comment posted by Stuart Williams on January 31, 2011 at 1:07 AM

very pretty and expertly done. well done.

Registered on December 7, 2007, 247 Posts, 4792 Comments

Comment posted by Jared Atencio on January 31, 2011 at 2:33 PM

Def. many pinks and magentas, but seems pretty accurate given the conditions and location. That's some great light on the clouds here and glad you were able to find this comp before the light faded!

Registered on June 23, 2009, 21 Posts, 422 Comments

Comment posted by Vance Gese on January 31, 2011 at 8:35 PM

Incredible color and composition. An outstanding image.

Registered on November 13, 2008, 298 Posts, 6629 Comments

Comment posted by Paul Duval on January 31, 2011 at 10:04 PM

Varina,

I guess when in doubt go with your "gut", if it's wild and intense but that's the impression you got when you released the shutter. Then that's reality. While colorful I actually am finding this subtle, the red color of the sandstone is just soaking up the color in the sky and reflecting it back.It's too bad that you had to struggle so to get the comp you wanted, all the while the seconds tick by and the colors change. When I started out taking sunset photography, I usually ended up at the beach and just plain water doesn't make much of a foreground. It was a lesson I found hard learning, so thats what makes the image specialyou found the rocks and midground to place that beautifully glowing sky against.

Paul

Registered on June 30, 2009, 508 Posts, 1907 Comments

Comment posted by Kory Lidstrom on February 2, 2011 at 11:30 AM

Very nice! Glad you found some lines that worked.

Registered on November 19, 2008, 49 Posts, 1035 Comments

Comment posted by Howard Cheek on April 12, 2011 at 9:51 AM

I've read through most of the comments. And the trials/tribulations of getting this.
Huge impact with this expansive view, wonderful image as posted..Awesome actually

Truly a labor of love, a work of art in the Book of Cheek

Registered on July 24, 2008, 1201 Posts, 10758 Comments