Morning Dunes

[Adamo]

Sand dunes at sunrise, Glamis California. Trying to capture the lines and textures. Comments?

[LeeIs]

1st one is my favourite. Really good one. A tad bit more blue to the sky and it's a winner. Very GQ. Dark browns and baby blues are a great colour combination.

[GB1]

Matt,

Hmm.

They all seem to have potential with good shape and energy, but they also seem to have an odd look , like they've been processed. The 2nd looks quite soft to me, and the bottom is somewhat like that also. Was there some unusual condition (say heavy winds)?

Given that they won't work in the sense of highly technical images, I would work them with some effects/filters to see what sort of artsy creations you can make. They all have good shape, so should work OK with such expts.

G

[Adamo]

Thanks for the comments guys.

As for not being "highly technical images" I don't really know how to achieve that. I used a tripod, I shot in early morning light, RAW, I used a large DOF with a remote shutter release and they still didn't come out the way I wanted. I did process them in LR4 just to bring out the colors I wanted, and used CS5 to sharpen them a bit, because out of the camera they seemed very flat. Maybe I went too far, but I really have no idea what I am doing wrong. Any tips?

[GB1]

Matt,

That's odd. You used a tripod and a shutter release and they still came out soft.

Some potential causes I can think of:

- soft lens
- dirty or scratched lens
- wide-open aperture, leaving only the focal point in focus
- very small aperture and the lens doesn't perform well at that extreme (some lenses are better than others at f22, etc.)
- blowing wind
- autofocus confused, and finally settling on an incorrect spot

Maybe others can think of more. Very odd though .. even if you resized the original (large) image and didn't resharpen, I think that images should be sharper than this.

G

[draymorton]

Now that I'm back on a computer again and can view these at full size, I'm seeing what GB is talking about.

The compositions in each are good, as is the lighting. The first one suffers from both lack of focus and oversharpening.

The second one is beautiful, even if a bit soft. To me, it still could work as an abstract piece.

The third one is technically the strongest and I like *it,* as well. But I'm wondering about a crop from the left up to that first little peak on the main hill. Those three tiny peaks in the distance on the left kind of disrupt the serene feel of the composition to me.

Will you have a chance to shoot here again? Even if not, I think the second and third images can be worked with.

As for the possible causes for lack of sharpness, GB has covered most of them. I know there are some focusing techniques used by landscape photographers, but I'm not familiar enough with them to be of much help. You might want to try mirror lock-up, as well.

[Adamo]

Thanks for the tips. I try not to blame equipment, but I do think my lens can be improved. I do have a tendency to leave the image stabilizer on when I use a tripod, but I am almost positive I turned it off this day. This is the first I have heard of this "mirror lock-up" so I will have to figure that out.

I can get back there fairly easily, but any thoughts on improving these. The first was cropped to achiev the comp I wanted, but the other two weren't cropped very much.

[Greg McCary]

Nice shot. I think this one could use a sky replacement and it looks as though it would be easily done.

[Frog]

Was the wind blowing?
That might account for the softenss as the sand would be moving.

I like the first best.

[Bobintx]

I'd say I like the first one best, Maybe some type of filter ( ND4 or Polarizing) . But I'am a fan of darker photos.

[Adamo]

Thank you for the comments. I found a sharper version of the third shot, but I think the tire tracks kills it dead. My favorite is the middle shot, even though its a little soft. Thanks again!

[armando_m]

Seeing this on my phone, 1 and 3 are my favorites, if you share the aperture and speed maybe we can help you. Is it possible the tripod was sinking in the sand ?

[Adamo]

How about something more like this?

[llewpics]

I really like the colors on this one. But ...and this is more my preference than anything, I don't like the tire tracks in any of them ...I would prefer nature without the hand of man. However, if that is what you were going for, then I think it works very well.

[Frog]

Nice but I still like the first one best. For me the tire tracks tell a story.