A magical experience with David Kingham in Death Valley - an early morning drive followed by a mile+ walk atop some of these dunes
Yoo “crunchy” ?
Forgive the watermark issue RLC - having problems with the library module in LR - any expert here ? My LR is pointing to the wrong folder and I dont know how to redirect it - so I created a new catalog and have a lot to redo
Is this a composite: No
Overall, I think is a very interesting and strong arrangement of the dunes and their shadows. I like how you have a strong diagonal flow of the mid-ground dunes, and then have that counter-balanced by the smaller group of dunes in the URC. From a composition perspective, I wish there was slightly more mountains at the top. And my personal preference would be to crop from the bottom, taking this to 16:9. I think it would place even more emphasis on these great shadows.
For my taste, yes a bit too crunchy in the dunes (although the mountains look fine). The crunchy-ness is especially noticeable in the large shadow areas. This may be a combination of too much shadow lifting, plus whatever you did to add texture to the dunes. With B&W, I think you could even let these large shadows go almost black for even more drama (and it would hide the crunch).
maybe this helps, assuming you know the right folder that the catalog should be pointing to.
Creating a new catalog would be my last resort, I’d rather try to re-point the existing catalog first.
It’s a dramatic image, well worth the difficult hike, but the noise in the shadows is a negative for me, and is an issue that can be dealt with. You might go back to the raw file and start over with a linear profile and try to minimize the noise as you work on the shadows – assuming that’s how it got brought up. Try going to the Detail panel and bring sharpening to 0 if noise in the darks starts getting to be too much. You can add tonal punch by working on the slightly lower-frequency details with Dehaze or Clarity but leaving Texture alone.
Your LR issue seems strange, but I would agree that creating a new catalog is a last resort. You can’t see the folder in the Folder panel on the left? What happens if you bring up the image and do Photo > Go to folder in Library?
This looks much better Karl, I do think the deeper shadows add more drama, and the crunchiness overall has been reined in.
A link to Tony Kuyper’s website, and information on linear profiles that @Diane_Miller mentioned
Your rework looks great Karl.
Agree the rework is a stronger image with full black in shadows. Really like this. Love photographing dunes.
