Delicate Twilight

[Kyle Jones]

I made my pilgrimage to Arches National Park just before New Year's a couple of years ago. This included the obligatory hike to Delicate Arch for a sunset that never really materialized. As the crowds dispersed, I moved closer to the arch and set up my LED light panel to illuminate the rock.

Any thoughts are welcome.

 

[Ben Egbert]

This is sweet. Had you not mentioned the LED panel, I would not have guessed. You have a bit of halo going on just inside the right leg of teh arch.

 

[Kyle Jones]

This is sweet. Had you not mentioned the LED panel, I would not have guessed. You have a bit of halo going on just inside the right leg of teh arch.

Thanks Ben, I definitely tried to be subtle with the lighting. I'm pretty sure the halo is real, since I can see it in the RAW and haven't been able to get rid of it. I guess I can go back and burn the sky later to minimize it.

 

[lionking]

I like your lighting, beautiful color too, few things that jump at me: the halo, as mention before, the FG behind the arch is a bit too dark compared to it, there is pretty strong shadow on the left bottom leg of the arch...
I would probably balance the exposures a bit to fix all this, except the halo.

Cheers!

 

[AlanLichty]

Nicely done Kyle - interesting that you brought along a light panel. I like the snippet of color on the horizon framed inside the arch and the cloud motion above. I have to confess my flash hasn't left my house in years and I usually only carry flashlights and headlamps for dark trails. I might need to change those habits.

 

[JimFox]

Hey Kyle,

Your lighting on this is really sweet! Soft and subtle with a natural WB for the scene. Nice work here with this.

How big of a panel did you have with you?

 

[Kyle Jones]

I like your lighting, beautiful color too, few things that jump at me: the halo, as mention before, the FG behind the arch is a bit too dark compared to it, there is pretty strong shadow on the left bottom leg of the arch...
I would probably balance the exposures a bit to fix all this, except the halo.
Cheers!

Thanks - as noted above I'm 98% sure that it isn't actually a halo. This is a single exposure that I've processed twice to optimize the sky and ground layers. The mask I used for the blend doesn't extend into the sky. That's left me with a dilemma... I can burn the sky layer to help mitigate the perceived halo or leave it as it actually was. The halo always bothered me some, so the fact that both you and Ben called it out tells me I should spend some more effort on it.

Nicely done Kyle - interesting that you brought along a light panel. I like the snippet of color on the horizon framed inside the arch and the cloud motion above. I have to confess my flash hasn't left my house in years and I usually only carry flashlights and headlamps for dark trails. I might need to change those habits.

I usually use a flashlight for light painting, but on this trip I had a feeling I was going to want to have a broader light source. It is really nice to set up the panel on a small tripod at a low light setting, in a position where I can get some side lighting. From there I can ignore it and just work on composition and taking pictures. It worked better here than when I attempted to use it on Mesa Arch the next morning.

Hey Kyle,

Your lighting on this is really sweet! Soft and subtle with a natural WB for the scene. Nice work here with this.

How big of a panel did you have with you?

I have the F&V HDV-Z96 96 LED panel. It includes colored covers for both normal LED light and a daylight balance and you can adjust the intensity to your liking. It can be a nice way to get broad, even lighting for night shooting.

 

[JimFox]

Hey Kyle,

As to the Halo issue. I am sure you have noticed too as well as anyone who has shot for any length of time, that there almost seems to be more natural halo's in photos then created halo's from bad processing. Okay, well maybe not more... but there are lot's of times when there are just natural halos along edges. Along cliff edges with lighter clouds is a prime time to have it be a natural halo, or lightening of the cloud along the edge.

Even though it feels like messing with nature, in most cases I correct the natural halo, because to the casual observer they don't know whether the halo was natural or due to bad processing.

 

[Kyle Jones]

Here's an update where I burned out the perceived halo. I did double check the original RAW, it isn't a blending halo, it is actually a lighter portion of the clouds. Either way, it always bothered me so I'm glad I cleaned it up.

 

[Ben Egbert]

The clean up was worth it no matter what caused it, this took it from great to sensational. I normally am not a big fan of delicate arch, its on my license plate

But this one is a cut above any I have seen.

 

[Kyle Jones]

The clean up was worth it no matter what caused it, this took it from great to sensational. I normally am not a big fan of delicate arch, its on my license plate

But this one is a cut above any I have seen.

Thanks a lot Ben, that means a lot to me.