Sage at Smith Rock

Gallery: LandscapePosted March 24, 201711,492 views16 comments

I live pretty close to Oregon's Smith Rock Park. There are loads of images of this park in Bend. You see your first in the baggage claim area at the airport upon arrival. Other than the shot from the visitors center the most idea seems to be to shoot from the lava ridge across the river to the cliffs. The trick is finding a good foreground. I've walked a fair amount along that bluff looking for the right conditions. It's never perfect but here is one.

Canon 6D, 24-105mm@32mm, f/18, 1/50 sec, ISO 100

There is no cropping involved here. I usually don't like such narrow verticals but any cropping to make it wider compromises the composition. Too narrow?

Comments

16 comments

Comment posted by Ronald Murphy on March 25, 2017 at 12:15 PM

Perfect image for me! Cropping down to eliminate the sky is a possibility; a different photo altogether but still good.

Registered on March 13, 2012, 279 Posts, 975 Comments

Comment posted by Lon Overacker on March 25, 2017 at 1:47 PM

Igor,

This is a wonderful image. The composition is perfect as presented and a great example and use of the near/far style.

Yeah, sometimes I don't care for the narrow verticals of the digital format, but I also believe there is no set formula and in this case the format works perfectly. I can suggest no better alternatives. I like the inclusion of the sky because there is a good mix of puffy clouds and blue sky.

The sage is the strong center piece, but for me, the color and glow of the far canyon wall steals the show.

Great job.

Lon

Registered on November 24, 2006, 521 Posts, 19147 Comments

Comment posted by Preston Birdwell on March 25, 2017 at 3:18 PM

This is one of the nicer images I have seen from Smith Rock. The color and contrast look good to me, and I love the glow on the crags.
--P

Registered on November 1, 2003, 471 Posts, 5188 Comments

Comment posted by Vance Gese on March 25, 2017 at 10:21 PM

One exquisite composition, Igor. The stellate design and line and details of the sage branches are superb and provide the perfect foreground element. Love the layers of varying luminosity that draws the eye back to that far distant mountain. Can't beat that warm light on the vertical rock. Wonderful color, wonderful everything for that matter. I think the format works just fine; would not want to crop anything out of this image. Fantastic image.

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

Comment posted by Bill Chambers on March 26, 2017 at 7:21 AM

Not too narrow at all. I love this Igor. Beautifully crafted and very pleasing to view.

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

Comment posted by scott lanz on March 26, 2017 at 8:23 AM

Excellent, Igor. You found a really strong foreground to go with the rest of the scene. The foreground itself makes for an excellent image.

Registered on November 14, 2003, 840 Posts, 12902 Comments

Comment posted by Harley Goldman on March 26, 2017 at 9:05 AM

This one is working for me, Igor. It does not seem too narrow at all. I think you found yourself a winner at that park.

Registered on November 19, 2003, 586 Posts, 11271 Comments

Comment posted by Doug Koepsel on March 26, 2017 at 12:54 PM

Igor, I do not see that you have much on top or bottom (maybe a little could be off the bottom) to make a crop without compromising as you note. Perhaps you could have taken a step back or zoomed out to get more on the sides and then could crop top and bottom more to suit your preferred aspect ratio.

Registered on April 1, 2010, 196 Posts, 1592 Comments

Comment posted by Jim Zablotny on March 26, 2017 at 1:36 PM

Igor,

Only one minor nit and not a deal breaker. There's a little bit of blue haloing between the center -left of center ridge top. Probably a jpeg artifact. This one will make a killer print for sure. Well done devil

.........................................Jim

Registered on January 17, 2004, 705 Posts, 3594 Comments

Comment posted by Igor Doncov on March 26, 2017 at 2:48 PM

You're right. I see it. I wonder which processing step introduced that. Thanks for noticing that.

Registered on November 22, 2014, 189 Posts, 2733 Comments

Comment posted by Dave Dillemuth on March 26, 2017 at 3:53 PM

This is a very fine image, Igor. I prefer the native 2x3 aspect ratio so doesn't look to narrow to me. Well composed with some beautiful warm light. Your processing looks very natural and spot-on. Only, very minor suggestion would be to clone out or crop that tiny spec of sky mixed with the rock face in the upper left.

Registered on December 10, 2015, 104 Posts, 1112 Comments

Comment posted by Harry Lichtman on March 26, 2017 at 8:07 PM

Doesn't look too narrow to me. Is quite detailed and busy - some directional lighting might have been helpful to help separate the component of the image. Otherwise, good to give a different view.

Registered on September 17, 2010, 304 Posts, 3507 Comments

Comment posted by Rudy Ruberti on March 28, 2017 at 9:37 PM

There's a lot to look at here and I like how the light on the distant cliff pulls me into the scene. I might crop a little off the top just to remove the small portion of sky on the left, but nicely done.

Registered on October 28, 2008, 179 Posts, 1875 Comments

Comment posted by John Williams on March 29, 2017 at 10:27 AM

I too would not crop this Igor. It is a little crowded at the top, but this one appears to be about the foreground and it needs the room to shine. The foreground is so rich, I'd be tempted to try and add contrast and richness to the sky. (Ever try the trick of copying the image to a new layer, using Apply Image to add the red channel to the blue and green layers, and then setting that layer to Luminosity? You would have to restrict the layer to the sky with a mask, but in this image that would be simple.)

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

Comment posted by Igor Doncov on March 29, 2017 at 4:28 PM

No, I haven't. In fact I may have dialed back the sky here separately because I have a thing about contrasty clouds and I usually like the blue to be pretty pale. I probably did that by selecting the sky and making photoshop adjustment with curves and saturation.

Interestingly enough this started out being about the yellow yellow rabbit brush and the cliffs but that idea never panned out.

Registered on November 22, 2014, 189 Posts, 2733 Comments

Comment posted by Marylynne Diggs on March 29, 2017 at 8:34 PM

It works for me, Igor. Smith Rock is tricky in a horizontal format because there are so many distinct rocks that can distract from each other. I wouldn't mind a little more light in the fg, but that's a taste thing.

Edit: never mind on the fg. Big image shows shadows much better.
ML

Registered on December 14, 2010, 122 Posts, 1034 Comments