I have not posted in the critique forum for a while, so thought I would ask for feedback on this shot from last weekend. This was at Salt River Canyon, about 90 miles north east of Phoenix. It was really dark and cloudy most of the evening, but right before the sun went down it peeked through some clouds and I got this.

Please let me know what I could have done, or can do, to improve.

Thanks everyone.
Dave

Detail, color, exposure, whitebalance, all the technical aspects of the shot are there.

The only issue I have is composition. I am not exactly sure if there is a crop that maximizes this shot, and I dont know what options you had for shooting this (IE: how far you could have hiked back on the left hand side of the shot to get a better and more balanced perspective further down the canyon.)

All in all, it looks like a beautiful spot worthy of a longer visit (with some very protective hiking boots and long pants)

Roman

Thanks Roman, This was taken from the side of a cliff and I had very little manuverability.

I really like the colors, shadows and depth and detail, but was not able to move around much.

About 10 seconds after I took this there was loud, almost simultaneous flash of lightening and thunder - I booked it out of there quickly!!

Thanks for taking the time to provide feedback.
Dave

It looks like a beautiful impressive vantage point for a picture. I come away with the impression that the picture is somehow not living up to the actual scene as you saw it. I think I want to see more contrast or saturation and a modification of the composition. More of the reds of the cliff, perhaps.
I think I'd crop some off the right side and let the water feature lead the eye to the bottom right corner.
I get a sense of wanting to see what is just above the top of the picture - of wanting to see more of the distance, maybe even the sky. (Nothing like a blown or bright sky to mess up the dynamic range of a photo, eh?) Also a sense of wanting to see more of the bottom left - what's beyond where the crop ends? Does the picture call for a wider lens?
I appologize for my vague comments and hope some of what I feel helps you in some small way.

Jim,

Thanks for the comments - I appreciate you taking the time to respond.

I was actually out at this site over the weekend and had decided to re-take the shot with different composition.

I would appreciate hearing what you and others think of the retake below.

Thanks in advance.

Dave

Hey Dave, I like this one too.....and have a few knits to pick on this one....or more suggestions.

See that cactus on the left? That would ROCK as a solid foreground item. Get a wide zoom and get closer to it....have it blocking a less nessassary portion of the shot and maybe frame the river section on the right of the canyon. More like your first shot...but with the cactus filling the lower left hand side of that scene.

The light was amazing, you just have to start leveraging your scene. Either combining areas, or singling things out.

I would have put the 70-200 on and zoomed out to that ridge with the interesting cloud and light on the upper right and made a seperate panorama from that alone. I see about 10 solid shots in that area.

PP is pretty good, but the greens are just a bit over saturated on the right side.

Awesome!!! Wish I could join you...looks like a lovely shooting area...put on the high top boots and go for a hike onto that first ridge in the canyon and get closer to that stream/river.

Roman

Thanks for the comments Roman. Now that you point it out, I see the shot with the cactus in the foreground, light and canyon in the BG. I need to be able to see those when I am there rather than after the fact.

It would be great if you are ever around here for us to go out there together. This is a really rugged, remote,beautiful area on the Indian reservation that has a lot of potential. On this trip I spent the better part of the afternoon taking shots down by the creek at the bottom.

Thanks again for the thoughts on composition - lots to think about and ... do.

I agree with Roman's suggestions and I would also like a trip down your way. Here are some ideas I visualized looking at your picture:

Crop1

This one shows the cactus, but of course you would get in closer and also compose to not have the bright spot in the upper left corner.
Crop 2

I couldn't squeeze any more colour out of this small crop, but you could from your original. The purple clouds and the rocks are featured in this one.
Crop 3

This one shows the beautiful light on the clouds, the rock face and the river.
You have some beautiful country there!

Jim,

Those compositions are also useful.

This shot is actually 4 vertical shots stitched together, so I have lots of pixels to play with and still come out with something reasonable.

Thanks for the ideas!

Hi Dave:

I like your retake much better. The pano works for me. Good job!

Jim