A sorta-abstract, sorta-not photo of blowing sand with golden light. The dune at the bottom is close to me and high up, and the dune at the top is down below and far away. I’ve always wanted a photo of blowing sand but never had the pleasure of being on a dune during high wind. I brought some dorky eye protection like you’d wear in a chemistry class and that really helped me be comfortable enough to compose a shot. Luckily no one was around to see how cool I looked.
What technical feedback would you like if any?
Any and all
What artistic feedback would you like if any?
Any and all. I like this image so I’m not looking for anything in particular.
Pertinent technical details or techniques:
(If this is a composite, etc. please be honest with your techniques to help others learn)
This is two exposures blended by hand - one focused on the foreground and one focused on the background. I should have taken more exposures with different focal points of the foreground but this meets my standards.
800 ISO, 150mm, f/8, 1/200 (and the other at 1/320)
If you would like your image to be eligible for a feature on the NPN Instagram (@NaturePhotoNet), add the tag ‘ig’ and leave your Instagram username below.
You may only download this image to demonstrate post-processing techniques.
Brent this is a beautiful image. The near/far relationship of the dunes at elevation really works nicely (some of my best are shot this way). The tonality is wonderful and overall comp is really strong. I don’t have anything for improvements, enjoying this as-is! I do wonder what this one would look like with a B&W conversion with such nice tonality??
Brent, bonus points for tolerating the blowing sand and I am trying to envision you in the special “Mad Max” eye protection😉. Hopefully your gear survived. I appreciate the balance of the composition and the lone bush adds additional interest that is really nice. I also think the shadows and color were handled very well. For me the struggle (no pun intended) was the blowing sand and was it obvious enough? As you stated it is “sorta-abstract, sorta-not”. Having said that, I find the image more intriguing the longer I study it. One nit that may be personal preference, I might try cropping the image so that strong shadow/sun edge starts at exactly the LRC. I also think at B&W conversion might work well.
Amazing image. It’s hard to critique this image because it really is fantastic; If anything, I might try cropping from the upper right just a hair, to make that section of sunlit dunes more equal to the lower left shadow section… like I said though, a very minute change (which may not actually improve anything) which shows how strong the image is.
Gorgeous. The light is fantastic of course and the blowing sand - actually subtle, but sure has an impact on the viewer giving much of the scene a very soft presentation (not like oof, but a gentleness).
My thoughts and only suggestion is what Cody suggestion. For me, it’s simply a bias against the very tall format for digital. But as he points out, I like the idea of having the top, middle and bottom have somewhat equal balance - light and shadow.
I am on the fence about this one. Beautiful light and interesting abstract structure but something is not quite clicking for me with it. For the moment, I can’t articulate what that is, but I will look at it more and check back if I get some resolution on it.
Brent, I think the crop suggestion from @cody and @Lon_Overacker takes it up another notch. For me anyways, somehow the sunlit upper area becomes more interesting the smaller it is, perhaps it’s Lon’s concept of equal balance.
With that said, I really like the very strong diagonal flow of the lines, this is more extreme than we see in many dune images, but I think it is very effective (great idea on your part). But for me, it’s the bush that really brings this image to life, I place my finger over it to eliminate it, and I don’t like this image anywhere near as much. Without that bush, this a pure abstract. But with the bush you have that hybrid sorta / notsorta abstract you refer to, and I find that much more interesting.
While this is a very subjective comment on my part, I think your color balance is a bit too red and magenta. My preference would be for the shadows to be more blue and less purple, and the upper two sunlit sections more yellow and less red. The magenta cast also slightly reduces the impact of the green bush. This observation is both subjective and a nitpick, I think this images works very as you have presented it.
I too have a bias against long verticals. In this case I would crop mostly from the top but perhaps a smidgeon from below.
I also agree that the tree is the star of the show. Without it it becomes a more cliche image, one of many shadow vs sunlight dune compositions. I think true abstracts are great when they’re done right and are original. Repeating pattern abstracts, which are common, are inferior in my opinion.
Thanks everybody! I always appreciate the kind words and thoughtful commentary. I definitely look forward to your commentary @Harley_Goldman if it comes together for you
Black and white looks kinda cool. At the moment I have a non-sensical no black and white policy, although I really like some black and white images. For my own work I just really like color.
Believe me, I played with cropping and balancing a whole bunch for this one! It is really finicky. Here’s a crop with a little off the right and the top. I feel like the bush is slightly out of place now. Is this along the lines of what you were thinking @Alan_Kreyger / @cody / @Lon_Overacker / @Ed_McGuirk / @Joel_Brown / @Igor_Doncov (wow, it really takes a village )
Brent, I still can’t articulate what is going on with me and the color version, but I really like the B&W. Go figure. Odds are I will be alone in that opinion, but like other singular body parts, everyone has one. I love the abstractness of the B&W and it is far more mysterious and intriguing to me. Great tonality, too. Thumbs up here.
What if the bush was not in the center and maybe if it was placed more to the right than as done in your repost. I like the patterns and subtle transitions present in the image. Well done…Jim
This is excellent, Brent. The blowing sand really makes this image stand-out. I for one prefer the original crop due to the placement of the bush. At least for my taste, I find the magenta a bit strong. I would pull that back a bit but otherwise this is a winner.
I’m all about this shot. I echo the good things the others have said about it.
However, 4x5 for me as I feel that there is a lot of dead space at the top that distracts from the main subject of the sand blowing around the tree. I think it will create more balance (not that it’s bad).
On the subject of 4x5 crops, I actually shoot many of my portrait images with the intention of cropping them to this ratio. I feel that landscapes in regular ratio can be a bit long for my liking, especially when printing them out.
)