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Archive 2013 · Sunset at Salton Sea

danwanfur
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p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · Sunset at Salton Sea

I visited Southern California during thanksgiving break. This was taken at sunset at Salton Sea.

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Dec 16, 2013 at 12:43 AM

Ben Horne
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p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · Sunset at Salton Sea

The composition works great for me. I do feel like the color is too saturated for my taste though. This is mostly based on the mountains in the background, and how deeply saturated they are.

Dec 16, 2013 at 01:00 AM

danwanfur
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p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · Sunset at Salton Sea

Ben Horne wrote:
The composition works great for me. I do feel like the color is too saturated for my taste though. This is mostly based on the mountains in the background, and how deeply saturated they are.

Thanks. Uploaded a newer version with the saturation toned down a bit. It was a spectacular sunset, one of the best I have seen this year.

Dec 16, 2013 at 01:09 AM

JimFox
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p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · Sunset at Salton Sea

Hey Dan,

Nice work on this one. This is actually one of the very few Salton Sea shots that I have ever seen that I like. I have been by there a few times in years past and just never could find anything appealing about it. But you have come up with something really special, Congrats!

Jim

Dec 16, 2013 at 12:55 PM

jdc562
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p.1 #5 · p.1 #5 · Sunset at Salton Sea

Dan,
I, on the other hand, have spent many interesting days photographing at the Salton Sea. My main incentive for going there is wildlife photography, but I also get wowed by sunsets over the Santa Rosa mountains. Yours could be a beautiful case in point, except that I agree with previous comments about the colors appearing to be too cranked up--an affliction of many FM landscape posts lately. I think it's fine to bring out the colors with PhotoShop adjustments, and you'll notice my qualification "appearing to be." I have been awed by sunsets so intense there that yours is within the realm of possibility, which makes it hard to determine if this is real, or faked and garish? If you overdid the PhotoShopping adjustments, I bet a more rational approach (and more respectful to FM viewers) would be even more impressive. If you didn't indulge in PS hysterics, this would be a phenomenon worthy of presenting as objective documentation.
---John

Dec 16, 2013 at 07:22 PM

Slabshaft
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p.1 #6 · p.1 #6 · Sunset at Salton Sea

I really like scene & composition and agree that the mountains should be blue/grey instead of purple and overall magenta cast could be toned back. The orange where the sunset went down could be pushed closer to white to emphasize the brightness there in relation to the rest of the image.

Dec 17, 2013 at 10:02 AM

Milan Hutera
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p.1 #7 · p.1 #7 · Sunset at Salton Sea

My kind of shot. Well done.

Dec 17, 2013 at 10:30 AM

kellyakinsart
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p.1 #8 · p.1 #8 · Sunset at Salton Sea

Boy John, I think you're being a bit harsh. I think this photo is a good example of one that deserves to be "cranked up" a bit. I like it. (I'm going by the one posted now)

Just because something isn't to your taste doesn't mean the poster is not being "respectful to FM viewers."
I think there's room for lots of styles within landscape photography. I know that my photography isn't to present "objective documentation", it's to impart my artistic vision of the world I see. I have my own limits as to how far from reality I will go, but my limits might be less or more than someone else's; that doesn't make one or the other better.
I don't think anyone here on FM posts photos right out of the camera; most of us blend to lower contrast in high dynamic scenes, work with color to get it just right, or any number of other things that might be different from objective documentation.
I think it would have been kinder (and more truthful) to say you hate (or don't like) a photo, than to say it's disrespectful to viewers.

Kelly

Dec 17, 2013 at 12:05 PM

dswiger
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p.1 #9 · p.1 #9 · Sunset at Salton Sea

Dan,
I like this just like it is and think your interpretation (edit applied) makes this a compelling image.
Feelin' the respect, probably like most FM viewers

Thanks for posting.

Dan

Dec 17, 2013 at 07:02 PM

trilce84
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p.1 #10 · p.1 #10 · Sunset at Salton Sea

Wows. The color in this photograph is spectacular. Amazing.

Dec 17, 2013 at 10:23 PM

ggleason
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p.1 #11 · p.1 #11 · Sunset at Salton Sea

I saw a sunset here in north Florida several nights ago that looked like the saturation in Photoshop had been cranked way too high; however, the colors were perfectly natural, but were unusual to see. Despite the fact that the mountains in this image don't look natural, this image works for me. Gregg

Dec 20, 2013 at 09:36 AM

Danpbphoto
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p.1 #12 · p.1 #12 · Sunset at Salton Sea

dswiger wrote:
Dan,
I like this just like it is and think your interpretation (edit applied) makes this a compelling image.
Feelin' the respect, probably like most FM viewers

Thanks for posting.

Dan

I agree with Dan also. Here in Maryland in the late fall and winter, the lack of haze &humidity in the air makes for some very saturated colored sunsets and sunrises.
So it is not out of the realm of possibility that "what you see is what you get" photo wise, as yours does.
Dan2

Dec 20, 2013 at 09:43 AM

Mitchell Derr
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p.1 #13 · p.1 #13 · Sunset at Salton Sea

Great shot! Keep up the good work. Colors look fine and natural here. Continue to be an artist at all cost!

Dec 20, 2013 at 10:08 AM

danwanfur
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p.1 #14 · p.1 #14 · Sunset at Salton Sea

Slabshaft wrote:
I really like scene & composition and agree that the mountains should be blue/grey instead of purple and overall magenta cast could be toned back. The orange where the sunset went down could be pushed closer to white to emphasize the brightness there in relation to the rest of the image.

ggleason wrote:
I saw a sunset here in north Florida several nights ago that looked like the saturation in Photoshop had been cranked way too high; however, the colors were perfectly natural, but were unusual to see. Despite the fact that the mountains in this image don't look natural, this image works for me. Gregg

Thank you all for the comments. While I tend to prefer more saturated images, I rarely see such intense colors as sunset and, if nature gives me good light, I will happily take it. As such I am going to stick with the colors of the sky.

However, this is a manual blend of two exposures, one for the sky and one for the land, including the mountains. I have only recently started blending, always using graduated ND filters until now. Seems I haven’t paid enough attention to the mountains. Let me try having another stab at this image this weekend to better blend the two exposures.

I greatly appreciate the comments. I really do want to improve.

Dec 20, 2013 at 10:19 AM

helenica
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p.1 #15 · p.1 #15 · Sunset at Salton Sea

WOW! I love the composition here. I presume that what I am now viewing is the second toned down version? I still find it saturated, but that said this is one of those shots where you can get away with over saturation.

Dec 20, 2013 at 02:58 PM

Douglas L
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p.1 #16 · p.1 #16 · Sunset at Salton Sea

Danpbphoto wrote:
I agree with Dan also. Here in Maryland in the late fall and winter, the lack of haze &humidity in the air makes for some very saturated colored sunsets and sunrises.
So it is not out of the realm of possibility that "what you see is what you get" photo wise, as yours does.
Dan2

The sunrise I saw here in Columbia on Dec 13 was unreal! Beautifully purple and pink. Once in a while in winter I see sunrise like that.

Dec 21, 2013 at 06:04 AM

ckcarr
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p.1 #17 · p.1 #17 · Sunset at Salton Sea

Very nice shot.

I did not see the original version, but I can tell you unequivocally that I have seen sunsets as intense, and as saturated up in Arches National Part a few times, and glowing off the winter snow. Very rare, but I have seen, and the last one, about a year ago, I was standing on the knoll by Balanced Rock looking Northwest but had nothing to put in the frame. That was maddening.

With all due respect to John, since he is primarily a wildlife photographer his "expertise" and rather harsh comments and broad brush of FM are taken with a grain of salt. This is the type sunset, sunrise, and great lighting of the sky we as landscape photographers seek. And it's often a rare, fleeting thing. He looks at it; while we try and photograph it.

So Dan may have it a little too intense, or not... But he was astute enough to try and capture it.

Dec 21, 2013 at 08:03 AM

CW100
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p.1 #18 · p.1 #18 · Sunset at Salton Sea

great colors!

Dec 21, 2013 at 05:59 PM


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