Ocotillo and Big Bend sunset

[Chris Ober]

Hello All. It's been a loooong time so I thought I'd post one here.
I donated a print of this for a charity auction and brought in $150, making it the first time something I've done has 'sold' :)
What do you think?

EOS 5d
17-40mm L
Probably f/22 or 16

[Don Nelson]

Chris
I love being in the Sonoran Desert -- and early mornings always have lots of light even before sunrise and such a feeling of color - you've captured it nicely on the distance mountains but I find the foreground a bit dark
I would start by eliminating the blue cast in the mountains and the foreground then following up with a little ligthening of the foreground, using masks of course....
I'd envision something like:

[Lyle Gruby]

Love Don's repost. If you got any frames earlier in the morning when there was more color in the sky, I might try to subtly blend those in.

[Andrew McLachlan]

Hi Chris, a lovely desert scene made even lovelier by Don's repost

[Diane Miller]

With everything being in shadow except some light on the mountains, I find the blue tint in the shadows in the OP dramatic and not that unrealistic. Also the slightly darker tones and lower contrast there in the FG work better for me.

Texas light can do that!

[Chris Ober]

Thanks all!
My PS skills are sill lacking and are something I'm working on improving.

[Don Nelson]

chris

You're doing fine. This is a really nice image of that part of the Sonoran desert (You're out by El Paso somewhere? Guadelupes or Big Bend?)
People's comments are just their opinions - and you'll see that people have different ideas but that doesn't mean your own intent of an image has to conform to anyone that posts! Thereis no right or wrong on how dark or light an image is....just different viewpoints.
In any event, you are doing fine -- you didn't get a lot of noise in your image, it wasn't over sharpened and it certainly was well color balanced. No artifacts of differential masking. So you're doing fine on your learning curve!
I look forward to seeing more of your posts again soon!
Best regards
Don