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Questions to guide your feedback
Are you drawn into the composition?
Other Information
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Image Description
The dunes and playa at Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes in Death Valley at sunset glow with the light of the Golden Hour. A popular venue for photographers I searched for a perspective that I had not seen before. I crawled around on the playa at a very low perspective searching for lines to direct the viewer into the scene and to separate the layers of sand from one another as well as the distant mountains. I then waited for the light to change and altered my viewpoint as necessary to capture what I perceived to be the best I would be able to do.
Technical Details
Canon EOS 5D II; Canon EF 28-70mm @ 35mm, f/16 @ 1/80 sec, ISO 400; Gitzo tripod, RRS BH 55; remote trigger
This is a beautiful scene and I LOVE the light on dunes and how it contrast against the darker blue background. It’s quite striking.
The like the dry mud cracks in the foreground and but feel like they don’t fully guide you through the scene. The wide angle lens stretches them out causing the foreground the feel long horizontally too. Perhaps a different pattern of cracks would work better. Maybe a pano crop where you exclude the foreground could simplify the composition? Or maybe a 4:3 crop ratio could help with the foreground. While it can’t be done in post, moving your camera up a little bit might help too.
But all that is nitpicking for a beautiful image. This is the type of light I love to photograph the most. I’d be quite happy if I had this image in my portfolio.
The light contrast and the opposing colors give an out of this world look to this image. That’s not unusual in DV. I might raise the white point in just the crack part of the image because it’s the flatest part. It’s also the least colorful.
Thank you @Igor_Doncov for your comments. By “raise the white point” do you mean raise the color temperature? The playa area is starting to get some shadow. The playa is not the subject but provides some leading lines and a sense of place.
No. I meant adding a levels layer and moving the upper right arrow towards the center. And then masking out this same layer above the shadowed area. I’m not sure how well this would work since I’m not at a place to try it myself.
I probably shouldn’t have said anything. I commented by looking from a cell phone and it looks different on the laptop. Anyway, for what it’s worth here is what I meant.
Thank you @Igor_Doncov for your attempts. This looks like an increase in highlight exposure. The resulting increase in contrast tends to grab my eye, distracting from the dunes. It may appeal to some, but not to me.
Phones are notoriously poor for making “corrections” in type, images, spoken messages etc. that no one wants.
