Lightroom Tips

My Moab/Arches National Park Trip

First off, don’t forget to scroll down for today’s Lightroom tip. As for this post, I’ve had a few requests to see some photos from the Moab, Utah workshop I taught at last week. First off I have to say thanks to everyone who attended. It was an awesome workshop! I was fortunate to have an incredible group of photographers and, as always with these workshops, some of the nicest people I could hope for. I always go home with new friends that I keep in touch with for years after, and this workshop was no exception. Weather was great (but cold) for the most part and we all walked away with some breath-taking photos. Anyway, here’s some shots.

First off, click each photo to see it larger. Next each photo was taken with my Nikon D300 on the Really Right Stuff BH-55 ballhead mounted on a Gitzo tripod. All were processed with Lightroom, Photoshop, and sharpened with Nik’s Sharpener Pro 3. HDR (Photomatix Pro) was used in one of them as well. I’ve got a big space on my wall at home so I’m trying to decide which one to print large. I’d really appreciate a comment to let me know which one is your favorite.

moab-4
Where? At Mesa Arch in Arches National Park
When? Sunrise
Lens? Nikon 70-200 mm VR
Settings? f/16
Processing? Lightroom for white balance, color saturation, and vignetting. Photoshop for some minor retouching. Photomatix to create HDR photo since there was no way to capture this in one photo.
How early did you get up? 3:35am and we left the hotel at 4am.

moab-3
Where? At Mesa Arch in Arches National Park
When? Sunrise
Settings? f/16 and 1/60 second.
Lens? Nikon 14-24mm
Processing? Lightroom for white balance, color, exposure, vignetting. Photoshop for minor retouching and removing small distractions.
How cold was it? Very cold and very windy. No matter how many layers anyone had on it seemed we were all shivering. But well worth it.

moab-11
Where? Dead Horse State Park
When? Sunrise
Settings? f/16 and 1/60 second.
Lens? Nikon 14-24mm
Processing? Lightroom for white balance, color, exposure, vignetting. Photoshop for minor retouching and removing small distractions. Nik Viveza to make the tree pop a little more.
Why did you shoot the tree and not all the other vast scenery out there? Basically, the sun had already come up. I had often shot so many photos of the same exact thing at sunrise, and end up with only one photo for the morning. So I forced myself to shoot sunrise for about 5 minutes and then switch spots as soon as the light changed. This is where I ended up.

moab-13
Where? Delicate Arch in Arches National Park
When? Sunset
Settings? f/16 at 1/180 second.
Lens? Nikon 18-200mm VR (I got tired of changing lenses so I went for versatile over expensive)
Processing? Lightroom for white balance, color, exposure and vignetting. Photoshop for minor retouching and removing small distractions.
How long was the hike to this Arch? A little over an hour if you walked at a fairly brisk pace. But it was a lot of fun and well worth the result.

moab-8
Where? Dead Horse State Park
When? Sunrise
Lens? Nikon 70-200 mm VR
Settings? f/11 at 1/45 second.
Processing? Lightroom for white balance, color, exposure and vignetting.
How did you end up getting this photo at Dead Horse as well as the other one above? They’re very different huh? Actually, I just turned around. Seriously, I was shooting in one direction when the sun was coming up. I turned around and this is what I saw. So I quickly changed lenses from wide to telephoto and got this shot.

moab-1
Where? At Mesa Arch in Arches National Park
When? Sunrise
Lens? Nikon 14-24mm
Settings? f/16 at 1/60
Processing? Lightroom for white balance, color saturation, exposure, and vignetting. Photoshop for some minor retouching.
Did you really get up at 3:30 for this photo? Yep. If you don’t get there early it supposedly gets incredibly crowded. It didn’t for us because it was snowing that morning and the weather forecast was abysmal. But everything changed and we got some incredible photos.

Thanks for checking them out folks. Please let me know which ones you like best.

Share: