I’m slowly shifting back to landscape photography after a fairly lengthy foray into abstract expressionist ICM. Staying too long in that other genre is, I fear, affecting my eye for detail, but it was a great way to get back into working with color.
Let me know what you think of this. It is actually a found composition (the bleached stick was there), but I am wondering if it looks contrived.
What technical feedback would you like if any?
What artistic feedback would you like if any?
Pertinent technical details or techniques:
Single image processed in LR
(If this is a composite, etc. please be honest with your techniques to help others learn)
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To me, this doesn’t seem contrived at all. I really love the vastness here as well as the lines and colours. Really nice work!
Beautiful lines and textures here! I agree with Tom, it doesn’t feel contrived to me. The branch really nicely breaks the lines of the sand. I don’t know if I would’ve placed it in the center. I played with some crops and I think I like removing like 20% from the right and 20% from the bottom. This places the branch more at a ‘rule of thirds cross’ and it works better together with the line created by the sanddune’s heightdifference on the left, to draw the eye through the frame?
The colors of the sand go nicely together with the sky. I do find the change of color in the lower corners due to the vignetting a bit distracting and would maybe try backing off the vignette a bit. I often end up putting the vignette layer into Luminosity blend mode to avoid too much change of color.
This picture captured my attention also because of the stick in the center… and I like very much this composition, it is extremely well balanced in my opinion… I like how the eye resonates with the ripples and then is captured by the simmetry-breaker stick. Excellent!
Nice to see you back here again @Marylynne_Diggs, I always enjoy seeing your work. I like this image for it’s simplicity. I do not think the stick looks like it was placed, thus it does not look contrived. I had a photographer friend who enjoyed placing leaves and things in strategic spots, and his justification was “well it could have been there” 
I actually think I this would also work cropping the sky away, and putting the stick in the top third of the scene. This would have the leading lines of the ripples leading to the stick and not the sky, making the stick a more integral part of the image.
It looks great as presented. I love the depth and the stick provides an excellent tool to lead my eye through the image. No suggestions here.
Good to see your landscape stuff again Marylynne!
So much to like here. The sky mixes perfectly with the warm sand. I like the stick, but personal preference would be to go for it and make it a little larger in the image by creeping closer.
I think this image has a story to it Marylynne. Many of us are in self isolation at home and for many of us in this network I think this stick reflects where we would prefer to be isolating at. Even though this image may reflect isolation it can also represent an end in sight.
This doesn’t look contrived at all. I like the stick in the middle. Gives this more of a sense of isolation, of a static scene. There is energy in the lines of the ripples and clouds, but the stick feels alone, stuck in the middle. The only thing I’m noticing is the vignette in the lower corners. It feels a bit strong. But that’s minor. This is wonderful.
Thanks for the feedback everyone. I played with crops but the centered stick felt best for the sense of isolation. I’ll look at the vignette. I didn’t add it, so it’s part of the wide angle lens + full-frame effect, but I did a gradient filter in the bottom that might have boosted contrast or something to create that effect.
ML
Marylynne,
I do like this very much as presented. It is very well balanced and I love the color. I would back off a touch on the vignette as was previously suggested. I see an alternate version (not better) without the sky. I see my friend @Ed_McGuirk also offered that option (we may be shooting together too much 
)
Nicely done!
Thanks everyone for all of the possibilities here. This is sthe hardest thing I face: what opportunities am I missing, what kind of profile corrections should I make.
So here are a few more options:
-
Lens profile correction to eliminate the vignette
-
Crop to bring the stick closer (without walking into the frame…funny how sand dunes are like birds–shoot then walk closer. I didn’t really do that, and I think the crop doesn’t quite do what John was thinking.).
- Skyless version. I like this. I have a whole series without skies (Entitled Elemental and linked here), and I’m trying to like skies again. In this case, I personally like the sky (it adds color and a sense of evaporation), but in a way, I think sky and skyless both work.
Let me know if you think one of these is the clear winner.
ML
Marylynne,
I prefer version 1 and then 3. For Me the pano crop loses some of the balance added by the sky.
Excellent Marylynne! Not to be redundant, but not contrived at all. This is a wonderful dune image. I think the sky adds a lot here and there is just the right amount included and the texture and mix of blue in there are a nice addition to the overall presentation.
And because I think the sky is so important, I don’t care for the crop of the sky. In fact, what that did was bring out that contrail a bit more; it’s much less noticeable in the original.
I think the stick is great and works perfectly as a focal point, a place for the eye to rest, come back to. There are even a few dark spots to the left that possible hint of the stick tumbling in the wind to it’s now resting place.
The only thing that I was thinking could be addressed is the depressed area and faint ridge line to the left. Thinking out loud on how to perhaps enhance that area to give the scene a little more dimension? if that makes sense. Certainly not a deal breaker, just a thought.
Excellent image as presented. I hope you’re wrist is getting back to normal!
Lon
Thanks, Lon and everyone. I have made a few minor adjustments (reduced the vignette without eliminating it, removed the vertical contrail, and brought out some texture in the depression to the left).
Thanks for helping me get back into this. My radius bone is healed, but the tendons, ligaments, muscles–very tight. I can’t support a lens the way I should (my wrist doesn’t turn that way yet), so it’s either bright light or tripod for me right now. Hoping to do downward dog or a push up by summer, but it seems impossible right now.
@Marylynne_Diggs, your last version is very nice. As others have mentioned, the stick doesn’t appear contrived at all. For my tastes, the vignette is still too strong, but that’s subjective, of course. I like the stick placement is is, but I also like @Ron_Jansen’s crop suggestion.
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