Light in the Badlands

Gallery: LandscapePosted October 21, 2013209 views9 comments

I recently spend 10 days camping and capturing images in the San Juan Basin Badlands of northwestern New Mexico. The scenery and light was fantastic. I chose late August to be there during stormy weather; I wasn't disappointed. The isolation was reinvigorating - I saw other people for only several hours during the entire time. I saw only one other hiker and/or photographer during the time spent in the Lybrook, Bisti, De-Nah-Zin and Ah-She-Sle-Pah Badlands areas.

I've been working on using a Sekonic L-478DR meter to refine ETTR and it worked great in spot reflective mode. I just had the meter set to automatically bump the metered highlights by 2.5 stops. There were no underexposures, and no blown highlights, in hundreds of images.

I've also been working on post-processing, relying on the many great ideas I got from the Skpe consults with Mark Metternich. For this image I also used 4 curve layers with masks to adjust areas of visual focus, highlights, shadows and contrast.

Your opinions and advise with regard to the comp and treatment would be much appreciated.

A gallery of images processed to date is here:
http://www.pbase.com/rbsmithphd/san_juan_basin_badlands

Randall

Comments

9 comments

Comment posted by Jeremy Kessler on October 21, 2013 at 10:15 PM

Beautiful Image Randall! That square foreground rock isn't doing much for me personally, got any images without it? It's just drawing my eyes in instead of letting them explore the rest of the scene. Ignore me if you like it.

Great work!

Registered on September 13, 2007, 36 Posts, 1283 Comments

Comment posted by Bill Reid on October 21, 2013 at 10:34 PM

Beautiful tones and colors in this Randall. Processing looks great and I like the dappled light. Sort of agree on the rock but beautiful image as is.

Registered on January 27, 2013, 65 Posts, 2460 Comments

Comment posted by Randall Smith on October 21, 2013 at 11:05 PM

Thanks for the comments. The square rock is approx. 6-8' in length and not consistent with the other rock on this ledge. In that way it was for me a curious and esthetically interesting additional detail in the image. The rest of the surrounding rock on this ledge was rather crumbly sandstone - I don't think I could have gotten closer to the edge to get a shot without the foreground. It's about a 300' drop. I've got some other shots of this area in the gallery without foreground elements.

Registered on June 13, 2009, 30 Posts, 69 Comments

Comment posted by John Williams on October 21, 2013 at 11:07 PM

Well I'm jealous. My in-laws live in Aztec, and we visit at least annually. I've always wanted to explore the badlands; it looks like so much opportunity driving there from Albuquerque. I've only been to Bisti so far, but I'm committed to expanding that one of these days.

Love this one. The spine of the ridge leading into the photo works great. Glad to hear the Skype visits with Mark are paying off!

Registered on September 6, 2007, 221 Posts, 5985 Comments

Comment posted by Wayne Jones on October 21, 2013 at 11:41 PM

Fascinating country! The serpentine ridge is interesting, and the spotlight through the hole in the clouds works great on it. I also really l like the the inclusion of the sky, illustrating the source of the spotty light and giving me the feeling that I am looking into an immense, but rather flat layer of space between the badlands and the cloud layer.

As for the "tablet" in the foreground, even though it does kind of look out of place, I like the perspective it adds. Now if we could only see some sort of commandment carved into it, this would be even more amazing!

Registered on April 18, 2007, 953 Posts, 6435 Comments

Comment posted by Dan Kearl on October 22, 2013 at 12:14 AM

Fascinating scene and nice comp.
The rock has been mentioned, not sure what you can do, except clone it out if it is within your ethics.

Registered on September 2, 2013, 209 Posts, 1514 Comments

Comment posted by Nick Bristol on October 22, 2013 at 2:12 PM

What a fantastic view! I really like the light and of course the super interesting landscape. Looks like you picked a great time to be there as well. The foreground rock has been mentioned and the more I look at it the more it seems to work. Anyways that is where it is!

Nick Bristol
Lone Rock, WI

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

Comment posted by Scott Fricke on October 22, 2013 at 3:45 PM

I'm really digging this one Randall! I love all the detail, color, textures, and light. Make a large print and you could probably stand in front of it for an hour with all the things going on. Well done!

Registered on January 19, 2007, 133 Posts, 1448 Comments

Comment posted by Phil Pogledich on October 22, 2013 at 5:48 PM

I really like this, Randall. Processing looks excellent and there are lots of wonderful details to enjoy. The blocky rock in the foreground is slightly distracting but it does not detract in any significant way from my enjoyment of the image overall.

Registered on August 24, 2009, 123 Posts, 3099 Comments