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Dave Mills
01-28-2009, 03:17 PM
Heres one I think I have the compositional aspects in place but not quite sure of....
There is some blur in the foreground bushes due to the intense wind at the time.
Shot in Calif later in the day....
Nikon D200 24-120 lense
f22 1/800
ISO 400 Tripod Mtd - 1/3 comp

Robert Amoruso
01-28-2009, 08:13 PM
Dave,

The upload is soft so I sharpened it and reposted here (USM at 175/0.3/0 and 125/0.2/0). I think I would have preferred to see the UR tree not intersecting with the sand dunes but instead in front of the distance mountain. Not sure if the move would have messed up the FG too much though.

You have nice diagonals in the FG leading to the BG as well as multiple layers of different colors creating depth.

Dave Mills
01-28-2009, 09:59 PM
Hi..I'll take a look at those sharpening numbers on my screen...thanks for posting them.

Robert Amoruso
01-28-2009, 10:05 PM
No problem Dave. Those dunes are really cool. What are they and can you get close to them?

On the JPGs for BPN: Go to http://www.birdphotographers.net/forums/showthread.php?t=5598 and about 1/2 way down in Artie's first post in the thread look for "Free Excerpt: Creating an Action for your BPN J-PEGS" in red. Try this procedure for your postings. I find his JPG sharpening to be a bit too aggressive and use the older ones from his Digital Basics which are Unsharp Mask Filter on BG copy at: ROund one 175/0.3/0, Round two at 125/0.2/0, Round three at 125/0.2/0. Since you are sharpening the whole image, if you get halos you may need to selectively sharpen.

Dave Mills
01-28-2009, 10:12 PM
Yes, you can walk all over them..... We were on our way to them when I shot this.I think their called the great sand dunes and their in California. I'll talk to a friend of mine tomorrow to make sure I have the right name...

denise ippolito
01-29-2009, 07:37 AM
Dave, I think the dunes are cool,I like the inclusion of the lone tree and the FG. Roberts re-post does look alot sharper

Roman Kurywczak
01-29-2009, 09:55 AM
Hey Dave,
I think Robert brought up the sharpness nicely and added some extra punch. I took your original version and knocked down some cyanand blue in the sky. I then also sharpened it like Robert.......but the big difference.......and you know how much I love that crop tool:D.........I took some off the bottom. this did a few things.......as the bottom was quite busy and uninteresting in a few areas......the crop helped define the edge of the brush a bit better and gave it a little curve and made it into a line.....that leads you to the tree and the distant dunes and mountains. Let me know what you think.
BTW.....I didn't get the colors to Roberts point although in PS it was pretty close.....but by the time I did the save for web at 58 quality.......it lost a bit.

Dave Mills
01-29-2009, 10:18 AM
Hi Roman....I like the crop. I think it strengthens the image. I also like what Robert did with the sharpening.
Thanks guys...Here was an image I wasn't quite sure about but had qualities I liked. These added measures definately improved an image I felt had good possibilities.

Harold Davis
01-29-2009, 07:00 PM
i like roman's composition. cool place. looks like there could be lots of compositions out there!

Judd Patterson
01-30-2009, 11:32 PM
The colors in this image are great from the yellows of the bushes to the nice blues in the stormy sky above the dunes. I like the inclusion of the dead tree too. The sharpness issue was brought up and addressed nicely by Robert. Overall a fine image with impact!