I took the featured photo during my latest driving trip to the Southwest.
The balanced rocks area is located in the Lees Ferry Recreation Area, only a few hundred meters from the famous Navajo Bridge. The drive from Navajo Bridge to Lees Ferry is very short but offers some incredible photo opportunities like this one.
My initial intention was to use another version of the photo without my wife who also shares the duty of my assistant during the trips. But, I also realized that it was really hard to assess the scale of the scene and most importantly, the balanced rock without the reference point.
The reference point task was assigned to my wife.
Shooting
It was middle of the day but the light was not too harsh because of the multi-layered clouds acted as a giant diffuser. The goal of the composition was to emphasize the contrast between red the rocks and the blue sky.
Camera: Sony a6000
Lens: Sony-16-70
Focal Length: 39mm
Shooting Mode: Aperture Priority (A)
ISO: 100
Aperture: F8
Shutter Speed: 1/250s
Bracketing: 3 (-1, 0, 1)
Tripod: FEISOL Tournament CT-3442 – Check my FEISOL Tournament CT-3442 Review
Ballhead: FEISOL CB-40D
Processing
Even I was shooting directly into the sun, I was managed to edit this photo as a single RAW file.
I keep experimenting with my new Lightroom Rapid Editing PLUS approach where I can adjust the Opacity for every preset.
I used the Natural preset from my Landscape Collection first. Next, I dialed down the opacity to 90%. Finally, I used TOOLKIT to boost contrast and clarity.
The Lightroom Editing Formula: Natural 90% (13, 17, 32)
Photoshop: color correction, contrast, cleaning.
Photoshop Plugins:
- Topaz DeNoise was used to reduce digital noise.
Before & After Transformation
.
