Moab Man

Another favorite subject of mine is rock art (petroglyphs and pictographs). This is another thing that Utah excels at. The state has dynamite rock art.

The image below is from right in Moab, Utah, near the golf course. This particular image is of a figure that locals call "Moab Man."

The original image was seriously bleached out by the direct sunlight it was shot in. But it was our last day there and there was no other option.

I used the 70-200 at about 180mm to keep from climbing over the fence that surrounds this and other images. But while observing that nicety, for some reason I chose to ignore my camera settings and shot this image at f/16! A flat image! Anyhow, this resulted in a shutter speed of 1/40. Thank goodness for VR!

The following processing was done to the image in Photoshop after using Nikon Capture to convert the raw image:

After cloning out some bullet holes (!), USM was applied to a duplicate of the background layer at Amount 18%, Radius 250, Threshold 0 to increase contrast.

This was followed by a curve layer to slightly darken the image.

Next, the Moab Man figure was selected and a Hue/Saturation layer was applied to it. Settings were Hue 3, Saturation 18, Lightness 2, mode Vivid Light, and Opacity 50%.

Then a Hue/Saturation layer was applied to the rest of the image. Settings here were Hue –2, Saturation 17, Lightness 0, mode Overlay, and Opacity 70%.

Finally, this was all capped off with a moderate Luminance sharpening. Mostly because it was quick and easy since I had an action ready for it.

Other than that, the image is like right out of the camera!

 

Thanks, Gregory! I'll post a "pre-processed" version later today.

Mike

 

Thanks, Joe.

Actually, considering all the new construction just yards away from this site, and all the frustration being generated in so many just yards away across the road in the golf course, the rock art here is in amazingly good condition! The worst part on the afternoon we were there were the very bad photograhic conditions.

Mike

 

Thanks, Bill. I envy you having visited Australian rock art sites. I have some idea what they are like from a couple of good rock art books. Truly amazing images!

Oh, Moab Man's handicap? Suffering the fate of having to be photographed by me, I'd say!

Kind regards,

Mike