Our workshop group agreed to venture out to Mesquite sand dunes in Death Valley National Park during a windstorm with 40-50mph gusts. I was trying to capture the intensity of the storm and the feeling of being one with nature.
I find being in nature and capturing images feeds my inner needs to the point that I have a hard time staying motivated to post process. Any tips on processing and/or dodging/burning would be appreciated.
Thanks for getting the ball rolling, and in the desert, my favourite environment. Firstly, the image certainly captures the energy and ferocity of these high speed winds on the dunes. They are almost impossible to describe in words, and your image conveys that sense of chaos very well.
The feelings you have in the field are a response to the stimulus of the landscape, the conditions and your own state of mind. It is easy to feel motivated in the landscape; it is where we recharge our soul. I know that being in front of the computer can somehow feel flat compared to that, and I think the approach I would suggest is to look on RAW files as experiences waiting to happen.
We know that life does not allow us 365 days a year in the field (not many people anyway!) - but we can use post-processing to build new relationships with the raw files and use them to express things we feel now, or things we remember about the event itself.
In this image I would ask you to consider the distribution of shadows and highlights, personally I feel the very bottom foreground of the frame is a little dark, crushing the shadows and creating a barrier into the frame. A gradient from the bottom and just adding whites and opening shadows would like the foreground, adding to the overall energy of the scene and raising the energy.
Luminance creates energy, and this storm is all about energy. Otherwise, the scene is very expressive. The overall softeners is also a function of nearly being blown over, which is understandable!
Thank you for posting
