Picture in a Picture?

Caught this glimpse of early morning light on the distant buttes that were framed by the foreground buttes while coming back down Schnebley Hill Road in Sedona. I only managed to get off two shots before the light became too harsh. Still trying to decide if this is a keeper or not. Shot with a 5D2 and 70-200/2.8L.

Very cool. Looks fake as hell.

I'm with ya, not sure its a keeper. Very interesting, and excellent catch. Just not sure it looks real enough

I assure you that its not a fake. I suspect the layer that I used to cut down the distant haze was a little strong. Thanks for confirming my suspicion.

Hope you didn't take my comment wrong. I knew it wasn't fake(seen enough of your stuff), and realized it was a drastic difference in lighting that caused the center mountains to look pasted in the frame. So, no insult meant at all with the fake comment. Just saying, because the difference is so drastic, I'm unsure about the image. Sometimes big lighting differences look great, this one, I'm not so sure.

I still think it was a great catch(like you said, didn't have long to capture that lighting effect), and interesting. Which makes it seem like maybe it is a keeper.

So, I stand firmly in the middle on the decision.

Oh no, not at all. I didn't take your comment the wrong way...once I posted it, it looked fake to me as well . The haze cutting filter that I use is pretty strong, and after staring at the screen for a while one's eyes can get a bit bleary...good to have another set of eyes for a critique. I went back and re-worked it a bit, cutting way back on the haze cutter, which made it look more like what I saw.

I like that one better. Looks more like a natural lighting difference.

Still an interesting WB difference, and still not sure if its a keeper.

I like it but, I'm with John on the fake look. :p

nice..

I saw it for myself last week. I was even up on Schnebly Hill Rd.
It looks exactly as I saw it.

An awesome sight indeed.

Killjoy wrote in post #8186686
I saw it for myself last week. I was even up on Schnebly Hill Rd.
It looks exactly as I saw it.

An awesome sight indeed.

I sure am glad that SOMEONE can corroborate the scene for me... I think what contributes to the "fakeness" look is the compression that's caused by a somewhat longer focal length, and the heavy use of a haze cutting filter in the original posted version. I was able to back off on the haze cutter, but can't change the compression. May give some cropping a try, maybe even a B/W conversion.

Very nice capture. Job well done!