Stormy

[Colin Driscoll]

A building monsoonal storm over Boodjamulla in far north Queensland, Australia. This storm finally caught up with me and my daughter and we hiked back about 3km in torrential rain. At least it showed that our packs were waterproof.

http://i259.photobucket.com/albums/hh296/MyPikkies/Scenic/BoodjamullaStormSky050110.jpg

50D 16-35 @ 16 1/200 f10 iso100

[Dave Mills]

Hi Colin, The clouds are great along with an interesting foreground. The cut bush on the right isn't helping the image and would have liked to have seen more interest in the middle ground...

[Robert Amoruso]

Dave echoes my thought exactly. The trees on the right are a distraction.

The image has three layers defined in color and texture - the rocks, the foliage and then the sky. As framed w/o the tree on the right, the eye appreciates the depth in the image and follows the colors from FG to BG and back. The tree interrupts this flow.

[Julie Kenward]

I think the FG could use a bit more sharpening but like the image overall (except for the tree!) I wonder as I look at this what it would have been like if you had sat down behind the rocks and aimed the camera up from a low vantage point so the green FG was more minimal and the rocks and clouds filled more of the frame? Just a thought for next time...

[Colin Driscoll]

Thanks, I value your comments. I look at the picture through my eyes as a vegetation ecologist/botanist and miss the aesthetic essence of the image. As for the interest in the middle ground, that was meant to be the patches of sunlight- maybe I should give them a tweak in brightness.

[Colin Driscoll]

OK here's another go at it. I've taken the close tree out, a bit off top and bottom to give a pano look, sharpened the foreground and lifted the sunlit area. Better?

http://i259.photobucket.com/albums/hh296/MyPikkies/Scenic/BoodjamullaStormSky050110-2.jpg

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hey Colin,
Agreed with the tree crop recommendation so your repost takes it into a nice direction but I also wanted to offer you a few more options to play around with. I started with a slight levels layer increase to the midtones and then a whole bunch of individual brightness contrasts tweaks....mostly to the clouds as I found them to be a huge star in this presentation so I tried tweaking them as much as I dare. Some of these contrast boost raised the colors even more.....so only you can judge if I pushed them over the top but you get a good idea on the sky. Let me know your thoughts on the re-post.

[Roman Kurywczak]

PS Looking at them both now.....I like your re-post better!!!

[Colin Driscoll]

Thanks for taking the time Roman. Yes, IMO your repost drifts back towards the original in the centre.