Under the Arch - a different perspective...

Welcome aboard Lin, great first post. Very dramatic angle, congrats.

A different perspective indeed. I think you have done a great job here and I really like the image. Those clouds are great.

Welcome to NatureScapes Lin. A very nice shot and a unique perspective.

Hi Guys,

Thanks! Every once in a while I just get a bug to do it differently. This one required about a half hour hike and climb with no trail to get up under the arch, but it was fun to get a different perspective. If I were 20 years younger it would have been more fun Hard to hold the camera still when I'm huffing and puffing - HA!

E.J., I wondered where you and Greg had dissapeared to - I stop by the NP Online Magazine every so often and the last few times there were a number of old timers missing. I haven't seen Dan Creighton around there either. Now I know where some of you are! Nice job you've done here - congratulations!

Best regards,

Lin

Cool perspective all right. From the thumbnail I thought it was looking down into waves. Had to reorient myself when it loaded.

I really like the view. Nice job on a different shot. Good PS work too.

Well Done -- love the angles and perspective.

Question? Is this two images combined?

Hi Neil, Ken, Brian,

Thanks! Brian, it's a single exposure captured in RAW and converted to tiff twice, then combined in PhotoShop for optimal dynamic range. The first conversion used -2 exposure compensation whicl the second used +2 exposure compensation. By using the two extremes highlights were preserved for the sky and shadow detail revealed for the arch and canyon wall. The two were then placed in separate levels in Photoshop and combined to reveal the shadow detail in the rocks and the cloud detail in the sky.

A similar procedure can be used by taking two separate exposures and exposing for highlights in one and shadows in the other, but doing that requires a tripod which I couldn't carry or actually even use because I was standing against the cliff wall on about a 45 degree slope of solid rock when I took the shot. So converting with -2+2 allows the next best way of getting the most dynamic range. Fortunately the 1DS captures a great deal more detail than can be revealed by a single curve. Often people get the mistaken impression that pro-level digital only has similar dynamic range to color transparency film, but the 1DS actually captures over 8 stops. The new 1D Mark II actually captures slightly over 9 stops. As with any digital, one needs to "shoot to the right" or expose for highlights because shadow detail can nearly always be revealed but blown highlights can't be recovered. In this case I was very close to blowing the highlights on the brighter portion of the clouds which are about 251, 251, 251 - right at the ragged edge of detail loss.

Best regards,

Lin

Fine image. Nothing else to add as it's all been said.

Great shot with a unique perspective. I think I'd crop out some of the overexposed sky on the right however.