I found this comp just after the sun had set in blue hour. The soft light on the dunes gave the impression that I was shooting ice and it felt like more of an anoretic scene than a desert scene.
What technical feedback would you like if any?
I’m in two minds about cloning out the bush in the upper right. Please let me know if you notice anything else.
What artistic feedback would you like if any?
Anything that comes to mind.
Pertinent technical details or techniques:
(If this is a composite, etc. please be honest with your techniques to help others learn)
132mm, F5, ISO100, 4s, Daylight white balance
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@NathanKleinPhotos
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Love this. Great comp, colour and tones, the smooth light falloff to shadow is perfect and pulls out some great textures and patterns in the sand.
Personally I would definitely clone out the bushes.
I think what really makes this comp work so well is the diagonal line in the dune farthest from the your camera, right at the top center of the frame. it balances the composition really nicely and in particular balances out the strong line in the immediate foreground. I thin you could make this far line a little more pronounced with some more contrast, or not, looks great as is.
Secondly the foreground is out of focus. Focus stacking would’ve solved this.
This is an amazing piece of art! The curvy line is great but what I really like is how everything to the left looks one way and everything to the right is really clean. This is really a feast for the eyes. I don’t mind the bushes because the line draws me eye toward that way sort of like a vanishing point.
There’s two ways to look at the bush. You can see it as an eye magnet that distracts the viewer. Or you can see it as a pleasant surprise. I recently read an article by a photographer who stated that a successful image is one that has a surprise, something unexpected. It makes sense to me. I would keep it, knowing full well that I’ll be the only one to suggest that.
I find the blue rendition of the dune to be pleasantly different from the typical black and orange compositions. Nice work.
There’s the “Antarctica” shot! I like it. I could go either way on the bushes too. Igor has a point, and I think it’s a thin line between distracting and surprise, but I would put this in the surprise category. That said, for my tastes I would probably clone them out for a cleaner look. To be honest, you could even crop down that far for a pretty clean look too.
The main critique I have of this image is that the foreground is out of focus. I had problems with that too with my long lenses.
Nathan, I do like the comp as presented and I would keep the tree as @Igor_Doncov as suggested. Until I read your description of the image I thought it was a snow scene. I love your take on the color. Nicely done!
Great and unusual dune take. I would clone out the bushes. I see this as quite a nice abstract and seeing the bushes makes it far less abstract to my eye. But definitely not an image killer. Real nice work.
I like the bushes,Nathan. I like what Igor said about surprises. It does give me a nice surprise to see them as my eyes travel the ridgeline. Very well seen. I share Brent’s thought about the out of focus foreground.
@Michael_McGee, @Richard_Wong, @Igor_Doncov, @Brent_Clark, @Alan_Kreyger, @Harley_Goldman, @Adhika_Lie thank you for your input on this image. You’ve given me some ideas on what I can do to polish this image. I do have another exposure with a sharper foreground and on second look I’m seeing a crop from the top.
I’ll post a revision soon.
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So here’s a revision with focus staking in the foreground to improve sharpness. I think the foreground is now acceptably sharp but not tack sharp.
I also cropped the top so that it’s not clear to the viewer what lays beyond. I’m hoping to add a touch of mystery.
On second look I found the saturation of the blues a bit strong so I increased the luminosity of the blues in the HSL area of camera raw.
Any opinions or comments are welcome.
1 Like
Very nice, I like this a lot more. Be sure to edit the top post and include it 
I’m glad you got another exposure of the foreground.
