The Making of "Inside Antelope Canyon"

The winning image in our "Hot and Cold" photo contest

By agsy in Photo Contests on Aug 24, 2014

"Inside Antelope Canyon" by agsy

Ever since my wife and I were planning our western US trip I was researching which wide angle lens to take with me. I did read that the Antelope Canyons are one of the most photographed places in the US so I wanted to take advantage of our visit and take as many great shots as I could. I read a few reviews about the 14mm Rokinon and I decided to buy it. And I did manage to take some really good photos with it.

As we entered into the canyons that morning, I had my Rokinon 14mm on my K5II. I tried a couple of settings in aperture priority mode and I ended up using exposure bracketing (-1.3, 0 +1.3) since I wanted to be able to capture the dark and the bright areas without blowing the highlights. Usually the under exposed image was the most acceptable since the dark areas can be easily brightened without losing much detail.

As we were walking among the narrow canyons, I looked up and saw the nicely Illuminated wall. The Sun was hitting it just perfect. The patterns that the water edged into the walls made them look surreal. I wanted to capture the molded patterns as I aimed my camera high and took the 3 shots. We did not pay for the tripod package so I had to use ISO 800 and 1/50s. Reviewing the photos on the cameras lcd, they looked even better with even more amazing colors as the camera captured it. The photo that I turned in for the contest was the under-exposed shot out of the three. It was not edited much, a bit of clarity boost in Lightroom and a bit of cropping.

The original underexposed image

I can truly recommend visiting the Antelope Canyons; it was an amazing experience for my wife and I with tons of excellent photo opportunity. I think the one I posted for the contest will be blown up for a place in our living room :).