The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.
Description
This is Mesquite Dunes at Death Valley again. It was part of a workshop earlier this month. Workshop leader Michael Gordon recommended that I go to this area from the top of a large dune where everyone gathered on the first day.
Specific Feedback
This image was slightly more yellowish originally and in this version I added just a tinge of redness to it. Iām uncertain if I made the right decision. Iām also interested in your opinion about the composition. It wasnāt obvious. I walked around a bit before deciding on this.
Technical Details
GFX50R, 45-100mm, f/11
Critique Template
Use of the template is optional, but it can help spark ideas.
Hi @Igor_Doncov , This is quite an evocative image you have shared with us. I think the composition is working wonderfully for you. The shape of dune edge and the fragments really give the impression of water breaking. The choice to add more of a reddish tone to the sand does result in a pleasing hue. Had you considered a B&W version to enhance the more ambiguous and suggestive impression? Very well seen and processed.
Another fine shot, Igor. It appeals to my minimalist side. You caught the light at the right time to get shadows behind the rocks and in the dunes. Without those shadows, this wouldnāt be nearly as effective. I agree with Guy that the image gives the impression of water breaking. BW would work but I think the color adds something here that would be missed.
Wonderful!! Definitely evokes waves! And I think it would have been easy to miss this. Iām glad you captured it and I got to enjoy it without having to slog around in those dunes. I need snowshoes there.
I love the color ā the warm tone looks perfect and the blue shadows are icing on the cake.
Igor: Really well seen, captured and presented. One thing Iāve noticed with images that have a strong directional component is how our brains react. Because Western culture reads left to right we seem to be more comfortable with images that seem to flow that way as well. I flipped this and while the flipped version is more comfortable to me in a psychosensory sense I much prefer your orientation for the visual challenge that makes me really look at the arrangement of elements and not just glance and pass over like I do with the flipped version. Would be interested in your thoughts.>=))>
These thin mud deposits in the dunes are so interesting when theyāre buried and then exposed by the wind. Itās their broken, angular shapes contrasted with the sand that I find cool. This does look a bit red, but photos of the Mesquite Dunes can be color adjusted and still be ābelievableā (if thatās the goal). When I did Michael & Guyās workshop, there was a woman who really exposed her dune shots to the right and made the color on the cool side. They were quite striking photos, but quite different from everyone elseās.
Iām not too sure about the color change, but the composition is masterful. The way the wave flows through the intersecting lines in the sand is excellent, but itās the arrowhead of rock pointing into the wave that really makes this for me; itās like 1+1+1=5. The bonus is the shadows formed by those rocks; the time of day was perfect for this image.
Playing around with this, I think it makes a spanking good black and white as well. On a side note, there are a couple dust bunnies if you want to be fastidious; there not really noticeable as posted, but easy to spot in the blue channel.
Sure. In Photoshop, open the Channels Palette (on the Menu Bar, select Window, and then in the drop-down menu select Channels). In the Channels Palette, click on the Blue channel (or use the hotkey combo āCtrl+5ā). (If for some reason this doesnāt show you your photo as the Blue Channel, turn off the Red and Green ones by clicking off their āeyesā in the eye column on the left of the Channels Palette.)
That should leave you with this (I circled the dust bunnies):
They are hard to notice in the composite view; may not be worth the time to fiddle with. I wouldnāt have seen them if I hadnāt been exploring the Channels to play with a black and white conversion.
Hi Igor,
I do like the basic composition, but I for my own personal tastes I could see backing off the red just a little. The diagonal flow of the small ridgeline in this desert landscape works quite well as do the diagonals of the sand patterns coming in from the left side. The light is perfect and adds depth to the scene with those shadows and the dried mud is another nice visual element. The ridge of sand with the pieces of mud reminds me of a fossilized spine of an ancient dinosaur. Really nicely done!
What I love about this image, Igor, is that it tells a story - not a story in human time but in geological time. For me, its not about what is revealed here specifically but that in an hour this could be gone completely with either something else or nothing left in its place.
Itās interesting to me that in your version, it feels like a barrier, whereas in @Bill_Fachās version it feels directional. They both work in their way but I would probably go with Billās version for its sense of depth, which to me, also speaks of time.
Thank you for your comments. I have flipped and posted the new version above. To be honest I like the original more but itās just a feeling I canāt explain why. I suspect that Iām having difficulty in seeing it differently from how I feel in love with subject in the first place. I know about the fact that we read from left to right. That the rescuing cavalry charge comes in on the screen from the left. I get all that. But Iām still seeing it how I originally saw it, as a āwingā that flows to the left. The flipped version looks awkward. I must just be too invested in this to adjust properly. To be honest iāve always had difficulty with suggestions on NPN to rotate images or place them upside down.
No, Iāve flipped it enough now to get a sense of the change. The wave seems to rise higher in the flipped version. In the original there is a sense of being more level. I guess Iām at the point where Iām not sure these types of mental exercises are worth the effort involved. Which is what I thought to start out with.
Please explain. I donāt sense any barrier. You mean it flows from left to right to a barrier?
@John_Williams Thank you for showing me the dust bunnies. They both probably are but the one on the left is definitely one as itās in the same location as last yearās image that @Bonnie_Lampley showed. If you blow up the raw to 100% the sand looks out of focus in that area. The grains are not clearly defined. After she pointed it out I was on the lookout for it to appear but, with one exception, I didnāt see it again. So I stopped looking.
No, I mean that your original version feels more like a wave coming in at me - and I donāt mean that as a bad thing but only how flipping this image changes my experience of it to one that feels less challenging and more about following the line.
