Joshua Tree NP, Hall of Horrors

Some great edits and there’s much to be learned from the xmp’s!

@ Doug-Phoenix: a very good point and pretty much what I was struggling with. All the lines are nicely leading towards the succulent, but then the very bright rocks in the mid-ground are stealing some of the attention. I was hoping to drastically brighten the plant, but that doesn’t seem to be in the cards without creating some ugly artifacts. In think, the B&W sidesteps that issue by placing the focus on the bright rocks (and silhouetting the plant) and in Uli’s version the square crop is also very effective in guiding attention equally to the plant and the rock.

With the latter edit, I noticed that on my screen the inline jpg looks fine, but when I load the xmp, the bright rocks are quite blown out. Did something get lost in translation?

Also, I just realized, that in my exported jpg the output sharpening produced some halos…