Great photography is at the core of everything we do at 500px, and we love to partner with brands that do the same. So when our friends at Luminar reached out with another great Quest idea for the 500px community we couldn’t resist. With over 30,000 submissions this Quest definitely lived up to its ‘dramatic’ title.

Continue reading to see who Luminar selected as the grand prize winner of $1000 US as well as a selection of some of their favorite and most dramatic images from the Quest.

A message from Luminar:

There was an incredible variety of stunning photos shortlisted for the best of “Dramatic Sky Edits” Quest. We loved the starry skies submissions, but also couldn’t pass by the beautiful pinky sunset clouds and dancing Aurora Borealis. There were so many amazing photos submitted, when selecting our favorites we had to go by what really wowed us.

We chose “Dramatic Sky Edits” as our Quest theme because it goes hand in hand with our Luminar’s AI-based photo editing software (available on 500px, when you purchase an Awesome or Pro membership)! Quite frankly, it was almost impossible to guess if the skies in these photos are real, knowing that with Luminar it’s so easy to swap the sky to create the perfect composition.

Here’s the winner, followed by the 5 stunning runner-up photos which are by no means any less dramatic than the top pick.

First Place Winner


Sunset on Ehrwalder Almsee by Frédéric Paolino on 500px.com

Photo by Frédéric Paolino

We just loved the streaks of color and movement here. While going back and forth with a few other photos in the Quest, we couldn’t help but come back to this photo. The warmth of the sky and sun, coolness of the water and trees, and whole range of colors sealed this for us. A definite top pick!

Runners Up


Magical night in the Netherlands by Mark Pelder on 500px.com

Photo by Mark Pelder

A stunning mirror-like world of stars. The well rounded composition with a small cozy bridge is beautiful, calm, and very peaceful.


Sunset near the Cathedral of Christ the Savior by Anastasia Mazureva on 500px.com

Photo by Anastasia Mazureva

This is probably Moscow’s most famous church, and the fiery sunset is quite rare. What we liked here is that this place is full of people, so if you look very closely, you can see faint shadows of the disappearing passersby.


under the rainbow by Wolfgang Moritzer on 500px.com

Photo by Wolfgang Moritzer

What a lovely moment. Who doesn’t love a full arc of a rainbow after the rain? The natural colors and “candidness” of the shot are very appealing.


Deadvlei by Sarawut Intarob on 500px.com

Photo by Sarawut Intarob

This is such an incredible panorama shot. We loved the whole sweeping view of the Milky Way and central composition of the shot.


Fall Colours of Muskoka by Elnaz Mansouri on 500px.com

Photo by Elnaz Mansouri

We couldn’t help ourselves to include a second picture with a rainbow in the five runner-up shots. This one is a double rainbow, and shows the beautiful home province of 500px (Ontario, Canada), which gets extra brownie points from us.

Check out the entire “Dramatic Sky Edits” Shorlist here!

You can learn more about Luminar here.

Have Luminar 4? Upgrade to 4.3 today for free! Or purchase Luminar on 500px here.