Sand Dunes Photography Tips

Hey everyone, I'm professional nature photographer Ian Plant and right now I'm exploring the beautiful deserts of the American West. And one thing that I love to photograph are sand dunes and you can find a lotta sand dunes in the Desert Southwest and in other locations around the world. In this video, I'm gonna share with you some of my favorite tips and techniques for getting great sand dune photos. Light is critical for sand dune photography and you want strong colorful light to bring out the best in your dune photos. During the middle of the day when the sun is high, the light is very colorless and you don't have any interesting shadows.

Overall, the scene looks pretty flat. The same is true with overcast light. But if you've got clear strong light at sunrise and sunset, that 45-minute period after the sun rises in the morning and that 45-minute period before the sun sets, that's when you're gonna get the most colorful light and the light is also gonna be directional. The low angle of the sun means the light's coming in at a very sharp angle, which means you can get some strong shadows. And those shadows are what are gonna define all sorts of interesting compositional shapes that you can use with your dune photos.

Typically, what you wanna do is select an angle that's about 90 degrees from where the sun is. That way, all the features that you're photographing will be side lit. I'm always looking for interesting shapes and patterns to emerge from the interplay of light and shadow on the dunes. For example, an S-curve created by the hard edge of a dune crest or ripples in the sand that can be used as a foreground element to lead the viewer's eye from near to far. The best time to photograph dunes is after a heavy windstorm because that'll erase any tracks that are put there from people walking or off-road vehicles.

If you don't have a good windstorm, then as you explore the dunes, you may need to go farther out away from where the people have traveled. Just make sure you don't go too far that you can't find your way back. Trust me, after the sun sets, all the dunes look exactly the same. It can be very difficult to navigate your way out, so make sure you know where you're going. If you have a GPS, you can use that to navigate your way back out of the dune field.

Don't rely on simply following your tracks back because if the wind is blowing while you're out in the dune field, those footprints that you've left behind might be erased by the wind and then if you can't rely on them to get out, you're gonna have a tough time. Although I generally advocate scouting for any landscape photography, just remember that scouting is of somewhat limited utility when you're working in a dune field for several reasons. One, the dunes always change with the winds. The dunes are always shifting around, so you may go out and find an interesting feature one day and it may be completely gone the next day. Second of all, you wanna be very careful as you're walking through the dune field not to walk through what might potentially be a great composition.

Trust me, there's nothing worse than realizing too late that you just ruined the best shot you possibly could've taken by walking through it. One of my favorite techniques is to get low and close to ripples that I'm gonna use as a foreground in my composition. And by getting low and close, I exaggerate the size of the ripples and with a wide-angle lens, that's gonna stretch the ripples out diagonally into the lower left and right corners of the image. That's gonna create a compelling radial effect that is gonna pull the viewer's eye deeper into the composition. I'll also often use a short telephoto lens to zoom in on interesting patterns and details that are a little bit father away.

Dune photography is often a race against time. You don't wanna scout too much because you don't wanna track up the landscape, but on the other hand, you do wanna find something interesting. So often, you're out there working in a short period of time during the best light of the day, scrambling to come up with something good. So when planning a dune shoot, I usually give myself a few days so I can go in several times to make the images that I wanna make. And just remember, every time you go into the dune field, you'll find that it's different.

The dunes are constantly changing, so having that extra time will ensure that you'll get great shots. All right, that's it for now. Dune photography can often be difficult because you can't always effectively plan ahead and you have to react to the scene as presented to you and stitch together great images on the fly. But when it all comes together, you'll be rewarded with beautiful dune photographs. I'm Ian Plant and good luck out there.