Illuminated

Welcome to NPN Peter. Great idea you had for this shot and I like the sneaky POV. You did a good job at holding down the highlights in the water too. Personally, I'd like to see the shadows opened up and more detail in the background to greater convey a sense of depth. Looking forward to seeing more posts.

Michael

Indeed a view of horse shoe bend that feels fresh. This even has some abstract quality. I like the shapes and the light. A good photograph!

I applaud your creativity, it resulted in a fine image. I agree with Michael about opening up the shadows, but this is nice as is. Welcome to NPN

Beauty of a first post Peter, welcome. I love the sweep of the river and the rich light you caught. On my monitor I like the shadows as they are; I think they emphasize that special light without plugging.

Thank you all for the welcome and suggestions. The only thing I find with opening the shadows in the back is that it wouldn't look as natural since the sun is behind the cliff. I mainly wanted to emphasize the river island and canyon wall, but I will see what it looks like if I do open up those shadows. I'm open to any other suggestions as well.

I like your interpretation of the place, Peter! From the thumbnail, I thought it was an intimate abstract scene. Pretty neat!

Texture, lines, contrast and color are presented.
For a darker photo I'm very impressed--eye catching and leads one to probe the photo.
Well done.
the fisch

Welcome to NPN, Peter! The composition works very well for me. I especially like the fg cliff. I can see where others are coming from with the shadows, but I would do so ever so slightly. I think the shadow adds a lot to the image.

Welcome to NPN Peter, and wonderful first post. This is an excellent composition and the light is just great. Can't wait to see more of your work.

Here's a quick repost with some of the shadows opened up. Personally I still like the original but I wanted to take some of these suggestions and compare. I just did a curves layer mask for the left and top section.

YES! Great work w/ that light. Sexy shot.

prefer the original.

aF

Welcome to NPN. What a great first post, it's a stunning visual. I agree about opening up the shadows just a little, but think that your right in that it's important for them still to fell like deep shadows. With the repost, it seems that you lightened only the farthest shadow, not the rest so it seems a bit unnatural. One thing about NPN is that you'll get a lot of honest opinions. In the long run it's important to develop your own style.

@Aaron Thank you, I do too prefer the original version

@Mark Thank you. When the opening of shadows was suggested I was hesitant because of the way the sun was hitting the landscape. The areas in shadow (I feel) should be in shadow because they are not in the path of sunlight. Looking back at the re-post I can see where you can find it unnatural since I didn't open any shadows in the canyon wall on the upper right. I appreciate the honest feedback which is why I joined this community.

I think opening the shadows to somewhere inbetween the two versions posted would be nice..congrats on your creativity here. Welcome to NPN!

Here's another repost I worked to get that top right canyon wall opened up a bit more. I seem to like this one equally as the original I think it looks a bit more natural with this version than the previous repost. Let me know what you think.

Excellent use of the canyon and making it abstract and effective!!!

Very nice first post, welcome! Great comp, was a good idea to try a different viewpoint of this location.