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This photo was taken in Bryce Canyon National Park, which is located in Central Utah.
Of the national parks I visited this Spring, this was my favorite. It's an amazing sight --
walls of spectacular orange
and pink hues guide you through Bryce's narrow canyon passes until they open to reveal towering rock
formations of even more spectacular color.
It was a real struggle to get everything I wanted to fit within the frame.
I ended up sacrificing the canyon floor, which would have emphasized the tree's height, and added more "drama" to the image.
I wish that I would have broken-down and purchased a wide-angle lens before the
trip. Then, I might have been better-able to do this setting justice.
More photos from Bryce are included in my Photo Album.
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This photo required some significant retouching in Photoshop in order to recapture what I recall from that day inside Bryce Canyon.
The darkness of the canyon, combined with the bright daylight beyond make it a difficult shot to properly meter. Since my photography
skills are still rather remedial, I tend to rely quite a bit on the camera's automatic exposure settings (i.e. "P" mode). In this case,
the camera couldn't properly calculate for such a wide variance in contrast. The camera has another metering mode -- called ESP --
for these types of situations but I don't use that mode, because I've found the results to be relatively "hit or miss."
To correct the image, I did a lot of work manually with the levels in Photoshop. The walls within the
canyon got some attention in order to restore the effect the ambient sunlight had on them. Next, the wall beyond the canyon was adjusted
to more-naturally reflect how the waning afternoon light played on it. Next, the sky -- or what bit of it was left, since it had gone
completely white in the photo -- was adjusted to restore what little bit of blue detail remained from the original shot. The shot you
see is the result of my work.
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Camera: Olympus E-10
Mode: Program
Metering: Center-weighted Spot
Shutter Speed: 1/640 sec
Aperture: f4
ISO: 80
Focal Length: 9mm
Contrast and Sharpness were set to normal.
Original File Size: 2240 x 1680, 769K at 1/8 Compression
The camera was fitted with a Hoya HMC UV(0) filter.
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