Today’s image comes from Carlsbad Caverns National Park, in southern New Mexico (USA).
Taking pictures in Carlsbad Caverns presents some unique challenges.
Since the caverns are under ground, there is obviously going to be artificial lighting, but it definitely hasn’t been laid out with photographers in mind. The lighting is a hodgepodge of stuff, with a number of different color temperatures. Meanwhile, the intensity of the illumination is far from even.
This is either good or bad, I suppose, depending on your perspective. I try to be positive, so from my perspective the eclectic lighting means that photographers have a variety of surprises in store for them after a picture is taken.
For instance, look into the background of this image. The greenish tinge in the depths wasn’t there in person — at least, it wasn’t something I could pick up on visually. I suspect it’s a function of the temperature of the lighting in that part of the caverns. Meanwhile, I could have brightened up the foreground some more in post-processing, but didn’t like the “flat” look that resulted.
Since I only shoot in RAW these days (when I’m using my DSLR), I’ll probably just take another run at post-processing this image some day. Maybe I can coax a bit more brightness out of the foreground…
Meanwhile, I think it gives you a pretty accurate feel for what the caverns looked like in person (aside from the green). The trail through this part of the caverns extends along the right side of the image — if you look, you can see the handrail on the left side (away from the cavern wall) of the trail.
For what it’s worth, this picture resulted from a long exposure made in Program mode, with the E-510 clamped to the handrail with my Gorillapod.
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