<<< o >>>Jabel Shams canyon #3 7 comments + add yours
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When I looked through my shots from the Jabel Shams canyon I was disappointed with a lot of them, mostly because they failed to portray the scale of the place. Take this shot for example – it's OK, but it's not easy to calculate the size of the various features. As such I've posted an additional shot here:

.../jabel_shams_canyon_3_scale_shot.php

It shows the furthest point we walked to: the site of an abandoned village. As a side note, we weren't in the least bit surprised it was abandoned as a) it was almost wholly inaccessible, and b) was perched above a several thousand foot drop. As you can see from the additional image, it looks like a section of the canyon wall was terraced, probably for growing crops. Jason and I jokingly decided that the reason it was abandoned is because the children were sent out to gather the harvest. After a generation or two, and the loss of most of their offspring to vegetable picking accidents, the locals moved out – to somewhere a bit closer to the ground :-)

Anyway, my main reason for including the extra shot is that it does give you seem idea regarding the scale of the canyon. When you compare the extra shot to the main one (the terracing is above the right-hand side of the large arch) you begin to get a much better sense of the immensity of the place.

captured
camera
lens
focal length
aperture
shutter speed
shooting mode
exposure bias
metering mode
ISO
flash
image quality
RAW converter
image editor
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cropped?
12.42pm on 15/11/10
Canon 5D Mark II
EF 16-35mm f/2.8L II USM
35mm
f/8.0
1/200
aperture priority
-2/3
evaluative
100
no
RAW
Camera Raw
Photoshop CS5
Topaz Detail
no
 
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comment by Dan Kaufman at 03:34 PM (GMT) on 5 December, 2010

you're right about the scale, but you certainly put the richness and impact of the scene back in to the final image. You even put back the ominousness!

comment by Cristian Tibirna at 03:52 PM (GMT) on 5 December, 2010

Excellent commercial for the HDR tutorial ;-) It's really impressive, the difference between the original image (one of them, I guess) and the final result.

comment by djn1 at 04:54 PM (GMT) on 5 December, 2010

Thanks Dan.

Cristian: this isn't an HDR image but I did use Topaz Detail to enhance the local contrast.

comment by Carlos Garcia at 05:22 PM (GMT) on 5 December, 2010

Thanks David! Your work on this image is fantastic. The extra picture does help gain some perspective. I love exploring, but this seems so dangerous! This is really a beautiful photograph.

C.

comment by martin at 12:54 AM (GMT) on 6 December, 2010

Astounding post process.

comment by djn1 at 01:24 PM (GMT) on 7 December, 2010

Thanks everyone :)

comment by djib at 03:03 PM (GMT) on 8 December, 2010

The processing here is mind-blowing.