Mesquite Dunes: Death Valley

[susanschermer]

It was necessary to do some work to eliminate the footprints from this image.
Captured with a Canon 5D and 70-200 lens at 200mm.
f/10 1/500 at ISO 320

[Dave Mills]

Hi Susan, Interesting angle on the dunes(curious to know where you shot this from). The dunes s curve is effective with nice detail on the side of the dunes. Haven't made up my mind how I feel about the dunes merge with the mountain peak and about a possible crop eliminating the sky focusing more attention on the dunes...

[Roger Clark]

Susan,

I really like this image, especially the linear texture on the dune. I agree with Dave about the mountains in the background. Did you image the dunes at a lower angle?

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hey Susan,
You composed this nicely with the strong curve and leading line. I may go a bit darker on the levels or add black to the neutrals and blacks just to strengthen the lines running down the dune face and add more depth to the mountains. Nice job minimizing the sky too! Very well done!

[Ed Vatza]

I think the dunes and mountains look great from this angle. I'm not crazy about the sky but the dunes and mountains look fine to my eye. I find myself so absorbed in the dunes that mountains are no more than background for me.

[Robert Amoruso]

I agree with Dave on the dune and mountain curve. If possible getting them juxtapositioned (left and right of each other) would be preferable IMO. Good suggest from Roman on selctive color. Another option is a selection of the diagonal lines in the dunes and using a curves correction to increase contrast there. Also a levels correction on that selection and clipping the shadows would increase the contrast in the shadows of the lines.

[Michael Pancier]

I love DV and how nice not to have footprints....