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Death Valley, Saturday,
23
January 2010
© 2010 KenRockwell.com. All rights reserved.
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Today we poked around Death Valley.
Badwater, Death Valley, 7:07 A.M.
I held a Tiffen 77mm round 0.6 (2-stop) gradiated neutral-density filter about an inch in front of the camera. I angled it so that the reflections wouldn't show the sky behind us. I don't need no stinking filter holder for my point-and-shoots.
This shot is boring. I should have gotten here earlier so that the mountains would have been lit by dimmer, redder light, in which case, this shot could have been good. As it is, the background mountains are washed-out, making the colors look even worse.
I dodged (lightened) some of the foreground flakes using adjustment layers and masks in Photoshop CS4 to catch your eye. (How to Use Photoshop).
Snapped with a 2009 Canon S90, Auto ISO chose ISO 500, I chose f/8 in Av mode which chose 1/125, 9.6mm (45mm equivalent), A3 AWB, -1-2/3 stops exposure compensation.
West End Road, Death Valley, 9:02 A.M.
This is a crummy shot. I shot this from the back seat of a Chevy Tahoe. I held a polarizer over the lens of a hand-held 2009 Canon S90, Auto ISO chose ISO 80, Program Auto chose f/4.5 at 1/200, 18.2mm (85mm equivalent), A3 AWB, -1/3 stop exposure compensation.
Technically it's fine and most people would be happy, but it's the sort of photo that many people submit to buyers or contests, and have no idea why it gets rejected. Many people would be tempted to work it over in Photoshop, which would only make it far worse, and make photo contest judges barf because most people's Photoshop work is done poorly enough to be painfully obvious.
To make a better image, it has to have a point. No one FARTed before snapping the photo.
This shot stinks because it has no real structure. It has no soul. Take away the details, and there's nothing left. If this shot was going to make it in color, it would have to have been shot two hours earlier with golden light on the distant mountains.
It's in color, but it doesn't use color for anything; it just happens to be in color by default.
It does have lots of texture. This shot would be better in black-and-white. In B&W we'd see the textures, and not be distracted by the weak colors.
If it was shot in B&W, it would still be bad because it becomes two pictures in one. When looking at it, is it a photo of a mountain (the top half), or an abstract photo of the mung on the bottom half? Pick only one and work it!
We can all do without any more ho-hum photos of mountains, so let's throw away the top half to focus our attention on the mung:
Aha! Now we're starting to get some clear structure!
It has a gray line across the top, a bigger light band across the top half, and some mung on the bottom. This is starting to get simple enough to become a much stronger photo. You could sketch the basics of this photo with one narrow line across the top, and a big, lighter gray bar across the middle.
Let's dodge (lighten) the two bands a bit to make our point stronger. I lightened the big central blob, lightened the middle top bar a little, and bumped up the overall contrast a bit. That gets us this:
Let's darken the sides and corners to keep our eyes in the middle. That gets us this:
OK, enough. I think we've done what we can. Let's tone it and throw it up on the wall:
It's never about the actual subject. It's always about using whatever you have as elements to create a strong compositional structure.
It's still not a great picture, but maybe you can see through this process how I took a forgettable image and made it into something a little bit stronger and more unique. If you pay attention, it's this easy to take what could have been a crappy photo and make a much better one. If I was paying attention, I would have zoomed-in to make this shot in the first place.
Half Dome, Golden Canyon, Death Valley, 10:14 A.M.
This is a garbage can, as seen from the side.
Snapped with a hand-held 2009 Canon S90, Auto ISO chose ISO 80, Program Auto chose f/5 at 1/500, 15mm (70mm equivalent), A3 AWB, no exposure compensation.
Furnace Creek Ranch, Death Valley, 12:31 PM.
Snapped with a hand-held 2009 Canon S90, Auto ISO chose ISO 80, Program Auto chose f/7.1 at 1/500, 6mm (28mm equivalent), A3 AWB, -2/3 stop exposure compensation.
Armor Tile, Death Valley Visitors Center, 3:43 PM.
Snapped with a hand-held 2009 Canon S90, Auto ISO chose ISO 80, Program Auto chose f/4.9 at 1/500, 22.5mm (105mm equivalent), A3 AWB, no exposure compensation.
Toilet's Eye View South, Zabriskie Point Parking Lot, Death Valley, 3:46 PM.
Snapped with a hand-held 2009 Canon S90, Auto ISO chose ISO 80, Program Auto chose f/4.5 at 1/500, 6.9mm (32mm equivalent), A3 AWB, -2/3 stop exposure compensation.
Nugget Gift Shop, Stovepipe Wells, Death Valley, 6:05 PM.
Snapped with a hand-held 2009 Canon S90, Auto ISO chose ISO 640, Program Auto chose f/2 at 1/30, 6.9mm (32mm equivalent), Tungsten WB with some trim, no exposure compensation.
Badwater Saloon, Stovepipe Wells, Death Valley, 6:17 PM.
The other guys thought this was a cool sign, and insisted I snap a picture.
Snapped with a hand-held 2009 Canon S90 braces on a table Auto ISO chose ISO 1,600, Program Auto chose f/4.5 at 1/6 of a second, 18.2mm (85mm equivalent), Auto WB with some trim, no exposure compensation.
Night Palm with Stars, Furnace Creek Ranch, Death Valley, 8:17 PM.
Snapped with a hand-held 2009 Canon S90 braces on Richard's Chevy Tahoe, Auto ISO chose ISO 1,600, Program Auto chose f/2 at 1 full second, 6mm (28mm equivalent), Auto WB with some trim.
Corkscrew Saloon, Furnace Creek Ranch, Death Valley, 8:20 PM.
I dodged (lightened) the upper sign using adjustment layers and masks in Photoshop CS4. (How to Use Photoshop).
Snapped with a hand-held 2009 Canon S90, Auto ISO chose ISO 800, Program Auto chose f/2 at 1/50 second, 6mm (28mm equivalent), Auto WB with some trim.
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