The Grand Canyon National Park has always been one of my favorite spots to photograph. The love affair started with the first visit when I was lucky enough to watch a perfect cloud inversion. Since then, every time we visit, we have had some of the best conditions. But even at such a spectacular location, photography can be a challenge. I have myself had quite a few experiences where I have been underwhelmed with the results.
When I first visited the park, I was quite intimidated by the dramatic variation in the scene's dynamic range. My first approach was to try HDR processing. While HDR images can pull out the texture's details very well, this type of processing makes the image look very unrealistic. I mean, if there are bright elements in a scene, your brain will expect dark areas. It took me a while to learn what was missing in my photography. The dark regions of the image are the part that adds mystery and depth to a scene.
I was not too happy with the composition as I believe I added too much sky in the image, but I love the details in the canyon part of the picture. You can see how the dark areas' presence brings the viewer's attention to the brighter areas of the scene and allows them to see the canyon's details. Learning this little secret has affected the way I see, compose, and edit an image.