Long Dune Shad + Repost

HI Harley,
I like your choice of keeping the mountains in the distance obscured.  I feel almost disrespectful of the earth to say this, but I find those mountains behind the dunes to be a fairly lackluster addition to most compositions from this area.  I love the shadows along the dunes and for the most part, I like the inclusion of the sky here. 

It might just be me, but the darker areas of the clouds give them a gritty hdr effect.  I'm not sure whether you were going for that, but for me, it detracts from the main focus, which is the shadows on the sand.  Reducing that effect would be pretty simple, or even cropping lower (like a 10x20 pano) to exclude the topmost puffs of clouds might work as well.  On one hand, I like the way the cloud puffs getting bigger at the top mirrors the dunes getting bigger in the distance, but on the other, it does pull my eye up rather than back into the scene. 

Curious about what others think about the sky.
ML

Hey Mr. H.,

Good call on keeping the bg mountains in the dark... ;-)  You succeeded in keeping the attention in the dunes with the light and shadow - which is excellent btw. 

And given that the attention is to the dunes, I'm with ML on the sky, especially the upper clouds, but perhaps for different reasons than she mentions.  I don't really see an HDR type effect, although I do see the darker clouds up top.  But no matter, my observation is that the entire sky in general is slightly darker than I would expect given brighter light on the face of the dunes. I'm probably being super picky, but I was looking to the sky before reading her comments anyway.  Minor indeed.

A grand view and wonderful dune landscape.

Lon

Harley, another really nice dune-scape here. I've never been to Death Valley, I definitely have to visit there some time. I like how you handled the mountains. But I agree with Lon, the tonality of the sky feels a bit dark relative to the light on the dunes. From your comments, I assume that big sets of clouds like this are not particularly common in Death Valley, and I can understand your excitement to include them in the scene. But I think the clouds are too strong here, and they tend to compete with the dunes for attention. Part of this is the strength of the clouds, and part is your choice to place the horizon about 50% of the way up. I think a crop a bit above the large patch of blue would help (with equal amounts of clouds both above and below that blue patch). 

To be fair, the clouds above that blue patch are more interesting than those below, so I see what you were going for, but removing part of them helps retain more emphasis on the dunes IMO.

Nicely balanced composition with the prominent dune making a strong focal point. A few thoughts for your consideration... Given how contrasty the light is, I think this image would lend it self well to a B&W rendering. Perhaps you tried and preferred color? If you stay with color, i would reduce the contrast a bit and open up the shadows in the dunes and raise the luminosity in the sky. On cropping, I agree with Ed that the clouds are so strong that they sort of compete with the dunes. As such I think a pano crop would work well.  

Harley, the high contrast and dark distant ridges show off the dunes very well.  The high contrast also fits well with the high contrast in the sky.  As a big fan of the dunes, I would to see the top half of the sky cropped.

Man you guys struck gold on your visit to DV, Harley. The details and light really shine when opening the large version and that was an excellent call on keeping those BG mountains in the shade so as not to compete with the lighting on the dunes. The suggested crop of the clouds would work, but so does this version. Nice to have some choices.

Ed

Harley, This is a very cool image to look at. The more I look the more I like what you did here. I like it fine as it is because those clouds are very nice but the mentioned crop does work as well. Maybe just brighten them just a bit. The light and shadow looks great to me and I like the dark background mountains.

Nick Bristol
Lone Rock, WI.

On this repost, I brightened the sky some. Thanks for all the suggestions and thoughts! They are all very much appreciated and quite helpful!  I always find it useful to see my images through someone else's eyes and look at my own work in a different way. 

Excellent Harley!  I think the sky/clouds and dunes are more harmonious now - once again, what a difference such subtle changes can be.  Thanks for taking the time and consideration.

Lon

Harley: One of my favorite places on the planet and dunes in general are one of my favorite subjects. Because I like the light and shadow play on the dunes so much I'm with those advocating a significant crop of the sky. As is the sky has about 60% of the frame and I think that ratio should be at least reversed or even increased. I do like what you did on the repost. >=))>