Took this shot during a visit to the Grand Canyon last year. Any feedback or advice (particularly on post-processing) would be appreciated as I'm still pretty new to this.

[Janse]

Amazing landscape and a very nice shot!

[wtlwdwgn]

It looks good for a midday shot but the best are near sunrise and sunset.

[slowpez]

Agree with Steve. The time of day certainly makes a difference but sometimes we just don't have a chance to be there at sunrise or sunset.

[nomadkng]

The grand canyon can still produce decent photos in midday, if composition and lighting transitions are utilized properly.

I think the biggest issue that jumps out at me about this photo is the number of partial elements included in the framing. They are very disconcerting. The trees, right and left and the partial aloe plant just say hurried snapshot.

The angle of the shot is also up, where I prefer to shoot the canyon from much closer to the rim and slightly downward, allowing any foreground elements to create a better sense of depth. Here the sky is rather boring and the angle of the image creates a very flat plane, not really imparting any scale. Add to that a rather empty (boring) foreground with harsh converging angles, the composition is a little lacking.

Using the aloe as a foreground anchor, or perhaps one of the trees might have helped. In general, you also want any converging lines to follow the rule of thirds. In this image, the two horizons meet basically just beyond the the far right edge, which leaves an empty feeling of continuance, as if the composition itself was part of a larger panorama, not a complete story unto itself.

It also looks as if you've attempted to use a basic gradient for the upper portion of the image, to darken the sky. This has artificially darkened the partial limbs, which I find unappealing.

As a first step, I'd crop out the dismembered foreground flora and some of the sky.

Others might have additional suggestions.

[Killieman]

Thanks for the feedback everyone. Unfortunately, we only had a few hours around midday to stop as we were road tripping. I'd love to get back for sunrise or sunset in the near future.

My intention of cropping but leaving the partials in the shot was to give it a frame of sorts (the original image was quite a bit wider) but I can definitely see where you are coming from. I'll have to give the tighter crop a try. I think I also limited my options by trying to keep the crop to 16:9 so that I could use it as a monitor background so I'll try in future to make 2 different shots so that I don't compromise the image (one wallpaper and one true). Certainly a lot for me to consider in future but we can only learn from feedback. Thanks nomadkng for being so detailed!

[miner74]

Here's a similar shot later in the afternoon showing the effect of shadows. Taken in the fall of 2006.

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[theoicarry]

Excellent framing in both shots.

[Adam]

Did you use any PP to boost the colors/shadows/contrast? Both shots look great.

[miner74]

No PP on my photo or cropping. I framed it in the viewfinder and Pentax did the rest. In fact, on the trip in the fall of 2006, I had just purchased the istDL, which was my first "advanced" digital after shooting film Pentax cameras for 30+ years. I didn't know much more than how to power up the camera! I still have the istDL. The factory settings really saturate red tones, and I have always enjoyed the color balance in the photos from this camera.