Arches

Forgive me if it's obvious, but yes, this is a composite. I've never done one before because it makes me feel just a tad bit sleazy. Anyway, let me know it works, if it's too obvious, or if you have any tips.

Ryan

great light in these....nice

Here's another go at it. Thanks for looking.

"...a tad bit sleazy." is a tad bit harsh. Most of us don't have the opportunity to wait at the location of a good shot for the clouds to get just right. It could take weeks. We are there for an hour, or a day,... and if the clouds are not there, you have to move on. If you had been there yesterday, you might have had perfect clouds. So, is it really sleazy to put 'yesterdays' clouds into a picture?

The trick is to make the clouds look like they were really there, not just stuck in later.

I like the third one. Sleazy? No more sleazy than throwing sand in the air to create a light beam, or light painting a tree. Don't beat yourself up. Great image.

Nice job at being creative plus being patient for the good light!!

The third one works the best. The first two have a line along the edge of the rock in the bottom left corner that is pretty obvious. It looks nice.
Sleazy? If you come right out and say it's a composite, I'm OK with it personally. If you omit that bit, or try to pawn it as a real shot, I think it's questionable. I know people do it. Even some of the big names in landscape photography, but I still don't like it. I'd rather shoot a place multiple times than fake it. Being out there in nature is a big part of the reason I do landscapes...

Nice work. I like the third posting best.

#3 works the best for me.... composites are fine as long as ya notate that's what they are in my book anyway

Inserting a UFO would be sleazy.

Alright. So maybe sleazy was the wrong word . . . although my shrink, if I had one, would probably tell me not to minimize my feelings.

I do, however, feel that a great photograph is a matter of manufactured luck. Yeah, you get lucky when the clouds are great, but it's also a matter of persistence, patience and often takes a fair amount of effort. Something short of that effort feels like cheating to me. However, I'm warming up to the idea of punching up a photo this way because I really do think that the only thing that matters is that the end result is interesting to look at - not necessarily how you achieved it.

And lol, tom1s.