The texture of the sand is why I got down to take this shot. The rest of the elements wanted to play their bit, also. Until this week, I never got an image that intrigued me from this shot, but going BW, as @Kerry_Gordon showed us in Canada, allowed me to get rid of a bunch of orange sand and greenish detail. I had not noticed the mouse hole until this BW came together.
Any feedback most welcome re technical and artistic
Hey Dick. Great scene. Classic American Southwest. I think the composition works really well. However, the way you’ve post processed, it feels a bit schizophrenic . The sky is very contrasty while the ground is quite flat, especially in the mid tones. Just for the hell of it I did a down and dirty rework. I think this image deserves more care than I gave it but I think you can get the idea. I really brought up the contrast in the lower portion of the image, particularly in the sand. At the same time, I toned down the sky a hair but also brought up more of the detail in the highlights. Partly, what I was aiming to do was punch up the leading line leading from the sand in the foreground to the butte in the background. This may not be your cup of tea at all, in which case I apologize in advance.
P.S. It might be even stronger with 4:5 or 8.5:11 crop. Obviously you’d have to fiddle with the clouds a bit to make it work if cropped. You might give it a try to see.
Wow. You have offered me a lot to think about. I want to incorporate your effect on the bright cloud detail. Lum mask and curves? levels? History/multiply?
I am going to think about the increased contrast in lower half. Pretty sure I like more contrasty brush. It’s really funny, but I worked so hard to increase tonality differences in the soft sand contours that I was surprised that more could be brought out. In the jpg the added contrast is a bit rough, but I’ll fiddle w the .psd and see what happens. Thank you warmly for the amazing rework … maybe quick but hardly dirty
I do most of my post processing in Ps using the TK7 luminosity panel. There are lots of ways to approach this using curves and various masks to build contrast. Typically, I’d build contrast a little more slowly but here I wanted to do it more quickly so it is all dodging and burning. I did one d&b group just for the sand, another for the bushes and everything below the horizon and a final group just for the sky. As I say, building more slowly will get more subtle results but I’m glad to hear this gave you a few ideas.
Dick, this is a very interesting scene, and I like the way you incorporated the vegetation in the foreground. I Love the clouds here as well, perfect subjects for B&W. I think @Kerry_Gordon makes a very interesting observation about the relative contrast between foreground and background. His rework of foreground contrast has added a lot of vitality to the image. The added contrast accentuates the texture of the vegetation, making it stronger as an entry point to the image.
In terms of composition, I like the original 3:2 aspect ratio. I think there are enough interesting things from top to bottom that 3:2 works well for me. While Kerry’s 4:5 aspect ratio places more emphasis on the buttes, it loses the puffy cloud near the top. So I guess it kind of depends what you want to emphasize. The 4:5 emphasizes the butte, and for me anyways the 3:2 emphasizes the cloud as well as the butte. My personal preference is for the 3:2.
