Mesquite Sand Dunes, Death Valley

Oso

Shot the above image in early 2011. Shot 'em as jpegs and didn't exactly nail the exposure (to say the least) so put them aside and took another stab at the image today (I vetoed the house chores selected for me). The mountains really did take on a purplish hue and the lady just happened to be wandering around in the distance, so it was kind of a unique scene and few other shutterbugs were around.

The color version is probably better; then again by tomorrow I will probably be hating on them both. C&C always welcome and thanks for looking.

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Blog: http://stevehymonphotos.blogspot.com

JC

Nice shot, great timing, and actually, for this one, I like the black and white better, while the color version looks fairly realistic to me, the colors seem a little bit jarring. For either one, I'd suggest more contrast to the foreground. All the values in the image are really clumped in the center (minus the sky, of course). More contrast in the foreground would really bring out the textures in the sand, the ripples and footprints, if you let the shadows go closer to black.

fool4thecity

My 2 cents: I also like the B&W better. Nice image! I'd also cut out some of the sky, it adds nothing to the image because there is nothing in it. A crop of the sky would also improve the location of the main element in the image, the person. They would then be directly in a "Cross point" in the rule of thirds and therefore improve your composition. If you feel you need to have your copy write watermark on your image, it would be better on the other side, instead of right in some interesting features you have captured the sand dune. Thanks for sharing, again, nice image.

Take care,

BreakALeg

I dig the B&W, but would bump up the contrast a bit. How great to have such a gorgeous place nearby!

mstrozewski

I like the color version. There's separation between the background & foreground and I notice the person standing atop the dune better than in black & white.

Earache

mstrozewski wrote: »

I like the color version. There's separation between the background & foreground and I notice the person standing atop the dune better than in black & white.

Although the color of the sky is not optimum.

Agree about more contrast and the crop of the sky, and the watermark.
Nice catch Steve!

Cornflake

Nice shot. Black and white suits this one better. I don't know how you did the conversion, but the colors in the original give you the possibility of obtaining more tonal separation between the foreground dune and the background mountains. (If you convert in Lightroom or Silver Efex Pro, you can lighten or darken colors.) I think more tonal separation would help. Also more contrast, as kolibri suggested.