Reduced blacks which gave more variation in sky tonality
Copped to include a bit more sky to to the right of the peak (which adds more variation in sky color)
I’m interested in feedback on each of the above separately if you like some and not all of those changes: Do you like the contrast and brightness better, the additional sky to the right? There are a fair number of footprints from folks taking the shortcut down from the top (and sometimes sliding on skateboards without wheels and sleds). I could easily remove those, but my favorite parts of the image are on the left side where its all shadowy.
The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.
Description
After chasing this dune the night before and hoping for some interesting moonlight, etc, I found my favorite shading and contours the following morning. As the sun rose, the contours of the dune had more shadow, making for completely different shapes than the day before.
This is the same dune as the high key one posted a few days ago, just less of a zoom/crop and totally different mood and light. I was going for a more melancholy, solemn, but calm mood here. Not too much drama, but not bright and lively either.
Specific Feedback
As always, eager for whatever you think, even if it’s “meh.” In particular though, I’m wondering about the following:
Do you think it would benefit from more contrast?
Would a Darker sky add interest, artistic ambience?
Again, processed in LR, and if Silver Efex might bring out something, let me know. I’m increasingly finding LR to be enough in my black and white conversions, but I’ve used Silver Efex for over 10 years, so I feel like I could be missing something by skipping over its tools.
Technical Details
Canon 5D4 with 24-105mm at 105mm
ISO 200, f/11, 1/500
Cropped significantly (shoulda gotten the 10-400 out and shot at 250mm, but, light was changing fast)
Marylynne, this is very dramatic, with the strong contrast across the frame. The shapes and how they angle across the frame are good. I especially like the subtle textures in that second ridge coming in from the lower left. I wouldn’t darken the sky, but I might try to even out its tone a bit (knowing that is challenging when the color is pretty uniform, like here). The bright section along the lower ridge looks to be almost blown and you’ve got some full blacks, so I don’t see where/how you’d add more contrast.
First and most — I love the photo and the story behind it.
I feel that you achieved melancholy with the moody dark side. I am torn between feeling that the right side distracts from the melancholy and adds drama/brightness, or promotes the melancholy by its contrasting brightness. I would be tempted to darken the sunny side of the dune a bit and maybe crop a bit off the right, just to see what happens. The bright areas below the dune crests are reflecting a lot of sunlight, and seem a bit distracting to me, at least to my sense of melancholy. About the sky, was it really a solid bluebird sky? I am hoping for a little texture or maybe gradient.
I’m surprised we don’t see more from here. So many focus on DV, this is a nice alternative.
I could see a bit more contrast on that brighter right side, but the rest looks very good.
My wish for the sky was that it had a bit of something in the way of cloud texture, like the nice subtle variations in your prior image, but you don’t get to choose that.
I do all my conversions from Photoshop rgb channels (most commonly red and/or green), so I can’t comment on Silver Efex.
This has so much contrast as is I don’t see how or where you would add more. The brights are already very bright and the darks are almost black. The only thing I might do is reduce the overall brightness of the right side of the image and then add. contrast to that portion of the image but the left side is super contrasty already.
I don’t think so. It’s tones are very flat so there isn’t much interest in the sky and I thinkThe tones you have now are really good.
I can’t say as I don’t use Silver Efex but again, I wouldn’t necessarily add any more contrast unless it’s to the right side after bringing the whites down some.
Overall, I think this is a moody and dramatic image that works really well and is the polar opposite of your last image of this nearly identical scene. Congrats to you for seeing it so differently.
Beautiful picture. I do not think that more contrast is needed. In my opinion a small improvement could be to leave a bit more sky on the right corner, to let the top of the dune breath a bit more.
Thanks, everyone. I’m about to share another version at the top applying some of the feedback, but I thought I would share a color version of the same frame so you can see the sky, and its blue bird featureless quality.
Also, below I’m including a sketch image. I was planning to try to get the birdcage primrose and the dune together for the Transition to Spring Challenge, but the amount of spatial separation between flowers, dune grass, and dune made it less than interesting to me. That plan was the reason I was walking around with the 24-105 at 105 instead of the 100-400 that I had the day before.
From the image below, You can see that unless you are half way up the dune, there is a lot of grass that is not particularly interesting. That’s why I cropped a good bit and did a wider crop. When you are on the dune, you can’t capture these shapes. It becomes more texture, but foot traffic made some of that not so great anyway. Below is a slight crop but otherwise sooc with a jpeg conversion. No adjustment to color or contrast.
Regarding John’s statement, I think the amount of grass, the height of the dune (much harder to climb than Mesquite), makes this more of a recreational site than photography site. Lots of people sledding down the right flank. The location (at least from this side), doesn’t have the same extensive, rolling dunes with infinite varieties of fantastic valleys and texture like DV has. The other side and an area to the left of this view has some of that, so I might go back next year and explore again.
I am liking your dune series, Marylynne. The textures are excellent in both. for the current image, my only suggestion would be to bring down the bight whites a bit. The other tonalities work nicely.
Now, go get a shot of a small spot of rippling sand and title it B-Flat Minor.
-P
Hi Marylynne,
B& W was definitely the way to go with this dunescape as it is so much more dramatic than the color version. The lines and shapes; as well as the interplay of light and shadow all work as one here.I really don’t have any more to add as you have already received some excellent suggestions and applied them to your rework. For my own personal tastes you pretty much nailed it with the repost. Very nicely done.
There’s a lot here to look at; a wonderful composition. I’ve had the privilege of shooting a lot of dunes, so I have opinions, which I encourage you to expeditiously dispense with, if you so choose, without a moment’s hesitation.
I find the activity in the lower left corner to be distracting, and it takes me out of the frame. The deep shadow in the center is interesting, but I want a teeny bit of detail in there. The supplied image likely suffers from compression.
For me, taking the color version and re-working it, I don’t think the bright areas are too bright, as long as we see those ridges. I don’t think the highlights needed more reduction. The burning on the right side works well. I would suggest treating the sky separately, via mask, to do what you want with it. I agree with having more space on the right side. I would lose the left 20%. Here’s my take (ham-fisted hack):
I used a linear gradient merged with the sky to add some variation. A quick touch of Orton effect, but those grasses in the front have to retain texture. I did dodge the little bump on the left to try to create a triangle betwee it, the peak, and the grass.
My $0.02. Love dunes, so I’m a fan. Even the footprints don’t really bother me here, and most of the time they make me very angry.
