Dune Photography Tips

1. Arrive early at your destination and walk around to identify the best patch of dunes before you get your best light.

2. The best dune shots generally require low, angular light found just after dawn and just before sunset. This type of light will highlight the beautiful, long, sinuous ridges found in typical dune formations around the world. If the light is bright and clear, the contrast will produce strong highlights and shadows to best show off the ridges.

3. Another good type of light for dune photography is after-glow – just after sunset and almost always in the opposite direction to the setting sun, and pre-glow before dawn. This magical light bathes the landscape with pinks, reds and mauves. White coloured dunes will reflect this light beautifully, turning the dunes the same colours as the sky. When shooting red dunes, the warm light will make the colours even richer and more saturated.

4. Wind is a factor, so be patient. Wait for the wind to settle before pulling out your camera. Make sure to protect it against sand too.

5. Shoot quickly and shoot often. You’ll be surprised how even a small variation in composition can produce a totally different effect.

6. It’s hard work to lug a tripod around – but it’s a discipline that makes you take more care in composing your images. If time is of the essence, at least try to use lenses with image stabilisers together with a high ISO setting to ensure a fast enough shutter speed as well as good depth-of-field (small aperture). When a dune image is out of focus or too soft, it ruins the tactile sensation that you find in sharp images of dune textures. (Also be careful of over sharpening dune shots in post-processing as you may end up with an unrealistic, gritty image with halos around the edges.)

7. Great images can be obtained from both telephoto lenses and wide-angles. If you want the focus to be on the long narrow ridges disappearing in the distance, use a wide lens (for example 16mm / 35 mm format equivalent). Try to get as much depth of field as possible with the foreground sharp. You can also try a tilt-shift lens for greater depth-of-field, and include a feature in the foreground to create a point of interest. This can be anything from a dead tree, or plant, or an unusual dune feature that contrasts with the surrounding dunes.

8. If you want to compress an image and emphasize the distant dunes, use a telephoto lens. They’re very useful when you’re trying to capture smaller details within a dune or if you want to compose your image from the flexibility of your car or a viewing platform.

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