Usually there is too much busy-ness in aerial views, and I'm happy when I can find a simple composition.
This was a couple of days ago, coming out of Mojave, CA into the San Joaquin Valley a little past Tehachapi Pass. It was about 9 am with the sun behind us. There had been major clouds pushed up against the valley side of the pass the evening before, and there was some remaining haze from a mixture of moisture and air pollution, giving some nice atmospheric perspective. (I love "Spare the Air" days in the Bay Area!)
Canon 5D Mk III, 70-200 f/2.8 at 200mm, ISO 800, f/8, 1/8000 sec. (I forgot to re-check the settings after having shot in low light the evening before, coming into Mojave for the night. But if there had been even minor turbulence, that SS wouldn't have been bad. It's really hard to hold that rig steady with even the slightest bouncing around.)
Cropped from the top and bottom and a very slight crop from the left to get rid of a piece of fog. Some tonal pushing in LR, and Nik Tonal Contrast in PS, as the light was quite flat, and a touch of warming. No sharpening or NR, although I should probably look at the latter.
I wish for more color but forward scattering of the sunlight from the haze says, just go for an artistic look and be happy.
Hi Diane, I really like the two clouds above the layered landscape. Beautiful! Maybe a tiny crop off the top? I am generally not very good with color casts but to me the scene looks like it has a bit of a greenish cast.
More contrast might do it -- the fog isn't as close to blown-out as it looks. As it came into LR is was just plain blue. And really low contrast. I did a lot of tweaking with WB and more color work in PS and this is as far s I got, but worth trying some more. I tried B/W but didn't care for it -- should revisit that, too.
I like the image as seen - and really like the layers with the fading at each layer showing distance in the haze. I wouldn't cut any more of the blue out of the haze between the hills - that would make it too smog-like.
Lots of noise in that sky - processing out the noise from the sky and part of the clouds could help.
I think a crop would improve - too much open sky up top for my taste
As well as some contrast increased with proper masking.
I'd envision something like this:
Hi Diane - nice scene and I too like the layer effect. First thing I noticed was the noise in the sky (unusual for one of your images ). I sort of like the low contrast look but it would be interesting to see one with the contrast pushed a bit more for comparison. I think I prefer the comp of your op.
Odd, I answered this earlier from my iPhone but it didn't get posted. Or at least I'm not seeing it here -- apologies if I'm looking at a page that needs to be refreshed. I'm clumsy with the iPhone on a forum.
I'll look at it again in a couple of days -- we're out of town again thru tomorrow and didn't bring the laptop. Need to see if I can address noise then bring up contrast and maybe find some color -- the noise isn't from increasing exposure, just contrast -- the original was very low contrast.
I have too much tolerance of noise from remembering film days. Digital luminance noise is so fine-grained it's paradise in comparison.
I appreciate the comments -- thanks! The discussions here always make me go back for another look.
Aerial landscape
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). I sort of like the low contrast look but it would be interesting to see one with the contrast pushed a bit more for comparison. I think I prefer the comp of your op.
Just me 
