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Water in the Desert
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Water in the Desert

by Jake Case

Gallery: LandscapePosted October 4, 201197 views4 comments
Spent a Sunday afternoon exploring areas of the Sonoran Desert that I had yet to see with my own eyes. It was nothing less than spectacular. This particular location is along the Salt River (thanks to Joel Hazelton for graciously giving me directions). Being the weekend, there was a lot of people swimming/fishing/boozing along the river, so I had to retreat to higher ground to get any peopleless shots. Because I spent so much time trying to find a free waterside shot, I had to throw this comp together at the last moment, which I think turned out okay considering. Just like the people, the clouds didn't cooperate, but the light was superb. For this shot, I took one exposure with the polarizing filter turned full on to maximize the reflection in the stream, and one exposure with the polarizer full off to get a nice even blue sky. I blended the two exposures in photoshop, also cloning out some chromatic abb that turned up from the polarizer full off exposure. Used Tony's luminosity masks technique, of course. All comments/critiques welcome!

Canon T1i@18mm
ISO 100
f/22
1.3 sec
polarizer

Comments

4 comments
Comment posted by Tony Kuyper on October 4, 2011 at 9:33 PM
What a neat idea to blend polarized and unpolarized exposures, Jake. Certainly works here. Could maybe see cloning off some of the rubble at the bottom and going with the green/orange/blue.
Registered on November 1, 2003, 364 Posts, 22328 Comments
Comment posted by Richard Teller on October 4, 2011 at 11:24 PM
Nice comp. and light. I might be tempted to crop some off the bottom, maybe up to the bottom of the green bushes.
Registered on August 23, 2010, 1162 Posts, 6692 Comments
Comment posted by Anil Rao on October 5, 2011 at 2:33 AM
Excellent! The light here is lovely and really suits the scene. Your choice of going with an unpolarized sky is right on the mark.
Registered on November 15, 2003, 234 Posts, 4923 Comments
Comment posted by Bill Chambers on October 5, 2011 at 9:31 AM
Although exposed and composed nicely, and the blend work is excellent, I find the image to be somewhat static. It doesn't really draw me into the scene like I want it to.
Registered on April 10, 2005, 753 Posts, 21216 Comments