I've been going through the photos from my recent Death Valley/Nevada trip and thought I would post some on PF, as I finish editing them. What do you think? Same overdone shots of the heavily-touristed areas, or something more unique? What would make them better?

15mm Limited, f/11, 1/250, ISO 100


15mm Limited, f/10, 1/160, ISO 100


40mm Limited, f/11, 1/80, ISO 100


40mm Limited, f/5.6, 1/400, ISO 100

[Clou]

I have no idea what would make them better (cannot compare to the original view), but the third one sticks out for me.

[yucatanPentax]

I like the second and third a lot.
Maybe just a touch more brightness (or exposure) and a touch more contrast?

[Mallee Boy]

simply more photos, will leave the processing to your own tastes and style. Would love to see more of the recent heavy rain effects on the landscape.

[johnhilvert]

These are well composed and beautiful captures of your rugged landscapes. I'd agree with the earlier responses about playing with contrast, clarity and brightness in post processing.

In the first image the color of the lower sky looked overly cyan blue --- at least on my display. This can be attended to in post processing as well.

If I were taking images here I'd consider aiming for shots that included items such as birds, animals or humans in the foreground or background to offer some perspective of the scale of the unique area.

[CreationBear]

Awesome set...#2 gets some wall-space, for sure. As for CC, I do think you might play around with different aspect ratios--maybe a 9X16 in the second, and perhaps even a square crop of the top portion of the last shot, but I do think all of these will be worth investing as much PP time as you've got, especially using grad filters to perhaps darken the foregrounds a bit and/or dodging and burning (ideally using luminosity masks) to bring out that wonderful interplay of tones.

[robgski]

Great way to show off the 40mm.

The first shot has good colors, but the perspective is not quite right, lower to the ground would have been better IMO, let those canyon walls above eye level lead you to the vanishing point and maybe a little more contrast.

the second is the keeper for sure! I little more shadow and just a touch more saturation would put it over teh top, IMO. This would also work as a hig-contrast BW, so many layers and ridges leading to the mountains.

The third is close, maybe crop out a little more foreground, and again a Lower perspective to really make that promontory more, er, Prominent!

Last shot is a great idea with good color and contrast, but four steps to your right and a lower perspective would have made the V in the foreground a great from for the clouds and mountains in the background.

[slowpez]

Thanks for taking me back to one of my favorite parks. Enjoyed the journey.