Spent a very windy night in the car waiting for dawn. Arrived at the dunes just before the sky started to lighten pre-dawn. Headed out to get closer to the biggest dune.
There were about a dozen other photographers there that morning in spite of wind about 25 miles per hour gusting up to 40 perhaps. So some of the more interesting dunes already had foot trails.
This was my very first shot on that day.
Open, CRW_1927
Misc.Raw Adjustment Settings
Convert to PSD file
Crop to 8x10
clone out 4 small defects,
Select mountains and sky, make channel
Select distant dunes, make channel
Create new layer with copy of sky for adjustment purposes
Adjust the different areas with
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Shadow/Highlight
Dodge, Burn and Sponge tools
Desaturate Red on Mountains and Sky
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Place: 13 out of 258 Avg (all users): 6.8978 Avg (commenters): 7.6471 Avg (participants): 6.8015 Avg (non-participants): 7.0449 Views since voting: 1910 Views during voting: 396 Votes: 225 Comments: 22 Favorites: 1 (view)
Perfect timing on this... the contrast between the warm tones of the sand adn the rich purple of the BG mountains is beautiful. I like your use of the foreground object.
there is a slight halo over the mountains, might be USM artifact?
Gorgeous golden glow contrasted with the distant blue of the mountains. Also, the wood in the foreground leads my eyes right into the photo and gives a very nice sense of perspective. Great! 10
Interesting how the purpleblue vs gold contrast can be found between the sky and the sand, but returns with the foreground object and the sand. Interesting how the light falls on that foreground subject, bit unexpected. Good.
Very pretty. i have a big issue with your placement of that wood in the foreground, and your cropping of the shaped sand around it that would really draw the eye is only you'd ncluded enough of it. Surely just crouching down would have enabled you to place that part of your composition more closely to the background, and to thus give some sense of continuity to the scene rather than this dissociation - an effect only enhanced by the very weird light around the wood.
The reason that very low placemtn is a problem is one not often understood, I think: and not as simple as a 'rule of thirds' thing, but more to do with how easily your viewer's eye will wander out of fframe if you give it half a chance - and that placement is just the half-chance needed.
amazing capture especially were the orange meets the blue.... the branch in the foreground is kinda wierdly edited, there is a part that almost has a yellow and purplish hue to it. but anyways when i cover the bottom half of the image its a perfect shot imo. 9