White Nightfall

This was a really amazing, soft sunset at White Sands. The camera and the eye definitely saw differently, but I think this is a close representation to what my brain got out of the scene. As the sun went below the mountains, everything went white - including the east side of the mountains which made them blend in with the dunes. For some reason I did not expect this at all and I found it powerful in it’s own way.

This is probably pushing the challenge subject a bit as the sun was mostly below the mountains, but is maybe still peeping out too much. We couldn’t stay due to COVID restrictions and park hours, so we kept looking back but I wasn’t able to stay quite long enough.

Note: As I was looking for my settings and processing, I see I did have some a bit later which I may post another day, but I think I will still post this and hope that’s okay.

Specific Feedback Requested

I realize I have busy foreground issues, but aside from that are there any strange artifacts or processing flaws that stand out to you? Any other tips or constructive comments are welcome as well.

Technical Details

Is this a composite: No
24mm, ISO 100, f/16, 1/30s
I cropped this to 1x2 because I didn’t need all of the space in the sky or foreground and wanted to focus to be on the dunes and mountains.

This was underexposed to save as much color as possible in the sky and I lifted the brightness and shadows on the sand quite a bit to get it back closer to the white color that I felt I could see with my eyes.

1 Like

Karla, the sand, sky and mountains are very harmonious in this view. Your pano crop with the vehicle tracks angling across the foreground sets/fits the scene well. While I see the glow from the sun, I don’t see clear evidence of the sun itself, so this fits the theme.

Thank you for the comments. I’m always afraid when I’m editing that I’ll do something unrealistic with the light and glaringly obvious to someone with a more experienced eye.