A Kgalagadi Storm

[Rudi van den Heever]

Location: Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park
Equipment: Canon 50D and 24-105mm F4 L lens at 105mm
Settings:1/4000s at F5 and ISO 400

Processed in Nik Silver Efex Pro 2 and CS5... All crits and advice welcome...

[Gary Hamilton]

This pano looks wonderful in B + W--I love the tones and the composition. Great sky to complement the beast (some kind of antelope, I assume). Very well seen and captured.

[Paul Taylor]

I like this one very much. Fabulous scene and the conversion looks great to me. At this size the clouds look lovely and smooth, but full of detail and contrast. I like the position of the Gemsbok looking right across the frame and the fact there is a line of distinct cloud that ends right above him is icing on the cake. Powerful stuff for me.

I might prefer even more of a pano, even though you'd lose some nice looking cloud and I'd really like to see it with some more light on the foreground - especially grass and sand - assuming there is detail there. But those aren't nits - if there are any they'd be the cloud intruding top left and the black grass for me. Edit: Sorry, it's not grass I guess).

[Grant Atkinson]

Dramatic and effective, the clouds are just unbelievable. VWD Rudi
tfs
Grant

[BenBotha]

Very dramatic clouds and picture. I like it!

Ben

[Pieter de Waal]

Impressive image with that cloud formation, like the composition and B&W conversion.. TFS.

[DanWalters]

Love the BW and the expanse of sky. The clouds are very dramatic as well.

[Kiran Khanzode]

For some reason I like such images going from left---> right. Guides my eye well in the scene entering from the left. This one is like Morkel's award winning image, just not the same sky.:cheers:

[Rudi van den Heever]

Thanks for the positive feedback everyone! It is much appreciated!:S3:

Yip, Kiran... Morkel's image has that x-factor and his foreground is much better exposed than the one in this image!:e3:w3

[Morkel Erasmus]

Rudi, I think this is one of your best images to date...:eek3::5
Well seen, captured and processed!
And no, it's not cause it's reminiscent of my wildebeest shot :w3. This has a totally different mood, even though the 'image design' is similar. I love the clouds, the depth in them, and the tonal range throughout the shot.

If you want more details in the FG you can always do a double blend from the same RAW file, pushing exposure to the right in one of them to open up more details in the FG with the lowest impact on noise (doing this on the JPG will certainly have an adverse effect on IQ).

Compositionally I think if you have a sliver more at the bottom just to 'anchor' it better, it would have been great. I would then shave some off the top (about half of the space above the ridge of the cumulus cloud).

[Rudi van den Heever]

Thanks a million Morkel! Will definitely have a go at it and try to repost before you go to that mystical place yourself!:S3:

[RakeshDhareshwar]

Wow ! The BnW tones makes this a winner . Great range of tones in the sky !!

[Dumay de Boulle]

WOW Rudi...One of your best, your skills are growing by the day...Keep it up mate!

[Dudley Watson]

Top notch b and w image. Cloud detail and contrast is excellent. VWD Rudi

[Rachel Hollander]

Great clouds and B&W treatment. A real beauty!

TFS,
Rachel

[Rudi van den Heever]

Thanks Dumay, Rakesh, Dudley and Rachel! Your time to view and cmment is much appreciated...:S3:

[Harshad Barve]

Very dramatic picture.
TFS