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[casil403]

Theses would be great HDR candidates...especially the first 2 images! That way you could get all levels of light and shadows without blowing anythingout or anything being too dark.

[Ash]

Susan, a valiant effort.
#3 has worked out well and has a lot of potential in PP.
The first two are unfortunately less pleasing due to the stark range of contrast in the scenes - #1 more so than #2. You either have to blow the highlights to save the shadows or lose the shadows to appropriately expose the highlights - the limits of the camera's dynamic range.

They both could certainly have done with HDR, or not been taking from those perspectives at all with those bright sunny conditions. On a cloudier day these would have come up much nicer, but as they are they're not salvageable.

[Mallee Boy]

Hi Susan,
I have found any sort of canyon in that part of the US a big challenge when it comes to not blowing the sky highlights.

What filters did you use? Not having been a big fan or user of filters I was converted to the fold by Marc Langille on his Utah workshop.

The other thing I have tried is shooting with as high a fstop as possible
(say f9.5 f11, f13 etc), and deliberately underexposing. I have found this allows me to re-adjust in lightroom using the brush feature.

Of course a tripod is a must, and a sturdy one at that. Also use your mirror up & 2 sec delay or cable release.

But back to my first question....filters?? which, if any, did you use?

Cheers
Grant

[slowpez]

Thanks casil403, HDR is beyond me at the moment but I hope to learn to use it and use it well someday.
Ash, your comments are always on the mark and helpful. It may surprise you that these were taken after 5:00 PM during a week when there were few clouds to be seen anywhere. Again, thanks for the input.

What filters did you use? Not having been a big fan or user of filters I was converted to the fold by Marc Langille on his Utah workshop.
I used a polarizing filter. I also have some graduated ND filters but because of the shape of the mountains couldn't get them to come out as the edges were just too dark.

The other thing I have tried is shooting with as high a fstop as possible
(say f9.5 f11, f13 etc), and deliberately underexposing. I have found this allows me to re-adjust in lightroom using the brush feature.
The first two were underexposed by 0.7 and the first taken at F18 and the second at F-22. I don't have lightroom and really have little experience with PS or Elements but am trying to learn. I would still like to get things right in-camera though.

Of course a tripod is a must, and a sturdy one at that. Also use your mirror up & 2 sec delay or cable release.
I always use a tripod (you wouldn't believe some of the places I have lugged that thing. Not the lightest but a good sturdy Manfrotto. I also use the 2-second delay most of the time but not as often as I should.

Grant

Thanks for your comments Grant. You have made some good points and I have so much to learn.
Susan

[SWEngineer]

Hi Susan. Nice pics. Zion's canyons sure are photogenic.

I would like to add to the suggestion pool: For shots like this, set exposure manually. Spot meter on the brighter & darker areas so you (not the camera) can decide what compromise you want between lost highlights or lost shadows.

And for shots like #2, all is not lost if you are willing to cheat a bit with PP. Here I took the liberty of fixing #2. I hope you are ok with that. Basically I just added a masked, reduced opacity gradient layer for the sky. And I cloned onto a new layer to replace the blown cliff face, again with reduced opacity to make it blend / more realistic looking.

You can easily do better working off of the full size original. And do better still if you have a separate shot with better exposure of the same cliff face to clone from. (Effectively, this is HDR w/o requiring good alignment.)



Cheers.