Atacama Desert

The Atacama between gravel areas and green strips

The Atacama is surprisingly colorful in these aerial photos. Bright plains extend up to reddish slopes, with a green stripe running in between. A wide sky leaves the distances open, while a path or embankment in the foreground gives the view a scale.

Color change in the desert

In the Atacama, even a narrow green stripe can determine the entire composition. Compared to the large mineral areas, its course is more noticeable than its actual width.

In a dry, largely open landscape, familiar references to size relationships are often missing. A channel in the foreground may be much smaller than its clear markings suggest. A path or a clearly visible edge of the terrain helps with classification. In the aerial photograph it is also worth looking into the distance, where several color zones meet. There the relationship between the nearby surface and the larger landscape becomes visible without the need for a building as a comparison.

The distance in the composition of the image

The position of the horizon determines how much space the landscape receives. If it is high in the image, more details can be seen on the ground. A lower horizon gives greater weight to the sky and weather. Both options can accurately describe a place if the connection to the main motif remains recognizable. When comparing two aerial photos, it is worth taking a look at the foreground. Often it is an inconspicuous piece of land at the bottom edge of the picture that conveys a sense of the vastness.

Light and surface of the water

On water, colors and brightness change with the direction of the light. A bright spot can be a reflection, a darker stripe can be caused by the shadow on the bank. The easiest way to describe such differences is to use a solid bank edge or an object in the water as a comparison. Two different distances are attractive for a sequence of images. The closer view shows small surface structures, while the overview makes their location in the entire water surface understandable.

Warm tones within the series

Among the 39 photos in the gallery, shot 32 and shot 7 provide a good starting point for the comparison. In the second view, warm reds and browns have more weight than in the first. Red-brown and yellowish areas are particularly noticeable next to cooler surfaces. What is interesting when comparing is whether they are concentrated on a single object or appear spread out across the entire view.

The camera data for shot 1 says March 12, 2022, and that for shot 39 says March 14, 2022. The gallery combines images from different days. Differences in lighting or visibility can be better classified against this background. ISO 100 and an exposure time of 1/640 second are recorded for both files.

In the Aerial Videos section there are 42 clips for this article. An example is “Atacama Desert in Chile from the air”. Its preview leads directly to the video in the aerial photographer's Adobe Stock portfolio.

Show the proportions of the landscape

It is easy to overestimate the size of a shape in a landscape painting. A bright spot may be a small open area or show an extensive portion of the terrain. When selecting images, a comprehensible reference point is therefore more important than the most dramatic perspective possible. If present in the motif, a path or a clearly recognizable shoreline can take on this task. An aerial photographer can also relate an overview and a single view. Readers are then given an idea of ​​the location before viewing the surface up close.

Related motifs in the aerial photo archive

Two further articles invite comparison. In the first, Valle de la Luna, a different detail is in the foreground. In the Valle de la Luna in Chile, flat, light soils alternate with deep grooves. Then Koronisia is a good option. On the way to Koronisia, a very narrow road runs through a wide watery landscape.