Steps of Salt Photo

Photographer’s Note

This are the same Salt Pans by mimi, but in winter instead of summer, as she photographed them.
This place was used since very long (not sure if the Inkas even used it) to extract salt (NaCl) for human use. Every pan mesures some 3 x 2m and every couple of them is owned by a different family —so the business of salt extraction is not a very profitable one but more made for subsistence for the workers.
The salt is mixed with soil, therefore the brown/red colour. I don't know how it is purified. Most probably iodine is added, because salt extracted this way usualy lacks it (NaI) in comparision to salt from the sea.
The black background is a mountain not well lit enough as to have details in the picture. It was not a bright day that day.

summer89, pamastro, Kroto has marked this note useful

Critiques | Translate

RandomCameraGuy (3063) 2004-07-15 18:51

Cool pic. But it seems a bit heavy handed in the PP. The sky seem overworked and the details in the salt are overexposed. Sorry man.

mpb001 (4600) 2004-07-15 21:21

This is a tough call. This is a difficult photo to work with. Not because of the composition, but because of the high contrast. The clouds are perhaps a bit too heavy, but there is the rather large triangular area that has no detail visible.
You could selectively use levels or curves on this area, but I don't think that you'd be able to bring much out here. I think that the salt area are workable because there is detail there. The whites could be worked with more than the underexposure area.
You still have captured a part of the world that most of us will not see in person and that deserves credit.

[workshop] [compare]

kikvel (4772) 2004-07-15 22:32

Jurgen:

El motivo y la composicion geniales, pero lo blanco esta un poco sobreexpuesto. Creoq ue hubiera sido preferible dejar bien el blanco y que lo demas salga bien oscuro, como siluetas.

Saludos

Kikvel

iamxa (2824) 2004-07-16 6:23

Que foto tan genial de un lugar tan extraordinario como Maras. Ese cielo tenebroso contrastando contra el blanco sucio de la sal. Excelente. Un saludo,

Kroto (46) 2004-07-16 8:11

It seems that conditions were difficult so I will not (and I would not even dream of it, from the insignifiant knowledge of photography I have) comment on the photograph itself.

As stated in the "About" site section: "The underlying theme of TrekEarth is learning more about the world through photography." I definitely learned something here and for this I thank you.

summer89 (5414) 2004-07-16 13:07

Hi jurge,
I like this photo, the angle it's great and colors, too.

Well done