Today’s photo features the iconic view of the Monument Valey I witnessed right after entering the Navajo tribal park. I saw this open view of the valley on many photographs before visiting the park, but I still was overwhelmed by the scale of the scene. In real life, it was much larger than I expected
Loc: 36.983322, -110.111716
Shooting
The primary challenge for me was a very strong wind at the top of the hill where I was standing. For better stability, I had to apply some extra pressure to my tripod using my body weight. Also, I had to keep wiping the front of the lens every couple of minutes because of the sand particles in the air.
Camera: Sony s6000
Lens: Sony 16-70mm
Focal Length: 49mm
Shooting Mode: Aperture Priority (A)
ISO: 100
Aperture: F9
Shutter Speed: 1/400s
Tripod: FEISOL Tournament CT-3442
Editing & Processing
It was a a single RAW processing workflow.
Lightroom (80%)
First, I used the Crop Overlay to straighten up the photograph.
I used the process I outlined in the article: How to Straighten a Photo in Lightroom.
Next, I used the Natural preset from my Landscape Preset Collection as the base for Lightroom Rapid Editing. Then I used TOOLKIT to boost the Contrast and the Clarity.
The Lightroom Preset Editing Formula: Natural (13, 21, 23, 32)
Photoshop (20%)
In Photoshop, all I had to do is to boos the details and apply noise reduction.
Plugins: DeNoise (noise reduction), Topaz Detail (local contrast boost).
Total Time: 10min