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Ramesh Adkoli
11-20-2009, 08:28 AM
I was lucky to capture this image as the sun was visible only momentarily. The diagonal formation in the clouds too was there for only a short while. Appreciate your views and comments.

D700, 70-200mm VR @ 105mm, 1/640s, f/22, ISO 200, hand held, full frame
PP: levels, selective curves and colors, channel mixer for B&W rendering

regards,
ramesh

Dave Mills
11-20-2009, 10:31 AM
Hi Ramesh, I like how your using your eye to select compositions that most would overlook. The leaf silouette is helpful in framing the top of the image. In this case I don't feel the cloud formation and the small sun has enough interest to strongly carry the image. However, the image does have a mood thats appealing.

Roman Kurywczak
11-20-2009, 01:38 PM
Hi Ramesh,
Another interesting idea and for the most part, pretty well handled. I did agree with Dave about the sun and clouds but then started to think and decided I would try to see if I could pull out more detail in the clouds to give them more impact.
I started by eliminating some of the contrast with the reverse s-curve and thenrecovering some highlights in shadow/highlights. I did this to try and get as much detail in some of the areas that had lost it and then selectively went back in and started adding it back with a combination of adding blacks in selective color (neutrals and blacks),levels layers, and brightnes/contrast layers all the time avoiding the brightest parts while pushing them as far as I dare. Final piece was a crop off hte left as the vert branch seemed too out of place with the mood and then a clone/patch on the UR corner. That one was a final decision and I was OK with leaving it in but decided to show another possibility if you are OK with such things. I tried to keep the entire tonal range very close to your OP but just bring out greater depth to some of the clouds. Let me know what you think.

Ramesh Adkoli
11-20-2009, 10:23 PM
Thanks Dave for your kind words. When i see a vast landscape, i do photograph such large vistas, but i try to isolate finer aspects of such a view that helps me convey a specific mood and catch viewer's attention. This approach is a work in progress thing and makes landscape photography all the more challenging for me:) Thanks for noticing that.

regards,
ramesh

Ramesh Adkoli
11-20-2009, 10:27 PM
Thanks, Roman for showing how to better this image. I definitely like the repost. The darker grays definitely make the diagonals in the clouds more prominent. I am fine with the crop and the cloning of UR. Thanks for the details of your approach too. Appreciate that.

regards,
ramesh

Dennis "Curly" Buchner
11-20-2009, 10:34 PM
I have tried the same thing Ramesh and sometimes the darn camera just will not do justice to what I saw.