Dramatic Clouds Before Sunset

[David Stephens]

This is one end of a long wave cloud, on the lea side of the Rocky Mountains. This day, high level winds were trying to break up the clouds and you can see the start of lenticular clouds and much turbulence in the picture. I wanted to include some ground, but there were some office buildings and towers that were too distracting to my eye, so I shot above the horizon. The camera is pointed North-East, just a few minutes before sunset.

Canon 5D MkIII, with EF 24-105mm f/4L IS at 24mm
Av Mode, ISO 800, +5/3EV, f/11, resulting in 1/160-sec., hand held
Raw conversion with DxO Optics Pro 9.1

[dankearl]

This is the best photo you have posted in Landscape by about a mile.
I think your clouds are too yellow for my taste, but you have a ton of DOF and dramatic light.
Nice…..

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi David - you've brought out some nice detail in the clouds and I don't mind at all that there is no ground included. I would also look at reducing the yellows. I did so in PS and it made the lighting even more dramatic IMHO.

TFS,
Rachel

[andresleon]

I really enjoy seeing the texture of the clouds, specially on the left side. It's a dramatic look that works well here. I actually don't mind the yellow tone, but you may want to play with the white balance a bit to see what level gives you more impact. It's a very nice capture.

[David Stephens]

Thank you everyone. I'll play with WB/ColorTemp to potentially gain impact, but this is close to the actual scene.

I'm often torn between what I think that I saw and what the accepted norm for a particular type of shot might be. It seems to be a common theme here to take blues and yellows out of scenes, where they actually exist in real life. I've been much more careful to be sure I notice blue or yellow tints in scenes at the time that I shoot. I'm not quite sure why some object to such real events, except maybe the idea of going for more "impact". I'm not judging here, simply observing and trying to understand.

I'm not a strict "realist", but think of the realistic processing as the starting point. I try to process immediately after a shoot, while the scene is fresh in my mind's eye. Since I've been here on BPN, I've been more observant of color casts as I capture the image. I may start taking a grey and a white card for my landscapes. Does anyone do this or something similar?

This shoot was particularly tough as I processed because the colors of this cloud went through extreme changes, from grey, to yellow-ish, to cotton candy pink to an orange. The colors were so extreme that I felt a need to say that they were real when I posted some of them. Still, it's very difficult to remember more than one or two colors for more than a few minutes. This is complicated by overall WB change in the scene. Shooting in Raw, I've not paid much attention to WB, but I find that I can, for instance, get cotton candy pink correctly adjusted for Raw conversion, but then if I try applying that as a preset to a image taken five-minutes earlier, the colors are off. This shoot was a real test of my ocular memory.

[Rachel Hollander]

David - I tend to be more of a realist than most and I don't add much saturation to my images. However, there is also an element of art and finding the most pleasing, realistic rendition of the scene. For me, this image is more pleasing with the yellow cast reduced a bit.
Just my $.02.

Rachel

[David Stephens]

Thanks for the input Rachel. I'm still not fully understanding why we move away from "real", removing God created elements, but I appreciate the feedback and discussion.

[Don Lacy]

It seems to be a common theme here to take blues and yellows out of scenes, where they actually exist in real life. I've been much more careful to be sure I notice blue or yellow tints in scenes at the time that I shoot. I'm not quite sure why some object to such real events, except maybe the idea of going for more "impact". I'm not judging here, simply observing and trying to understand.

Hi David, The minds eye automatically color adjust a scene when people or looking at it in real time as such most people really do not see the yellows and blues that the camera captures so to them it looks off in an image. As far as the image goes I think its your best cloudscape yet with nice dramatic shapes and colors.

[Morkel Erasmus]

This is a lovely sky and one of the photos that prove we shouldn't always be hunting for that interesting foreground if it's not looking pretty where we are under the gorgeous skies.
Nice depth and tones - it makes me think that this may have exploded into an epic red and pink sunset...did it?

I always try and go for what I saw combined with how it made me feel when processing. Also keep in mind that the camera's sensor often oversaturates yellows and reds during capture in intense light.

[Andrew McLachlan]

Hi David, a stunning cloud-scape for sure...very nice work...I too would reduce the yellows a tad. In the extreme lower right corner there appears to be what looks like the tip of a communications antenna poking into the scene.

[David Stephens]

Thanks again everyone.

Morkel, you're absolutely right, it did explode into pink, among other very dramatic colors. Here's a cotton candy pink version:


Untitled by dcstep, on Flickr

[Diane Miller]

Amazing colors and cloud structure! With shots where color becomes problematic, I look at the various choices for Profile in the Camera Calibration tab in LR / ACR. Some are awful and a couple often will be an improvement on the default Adobe Standard. All will require tweaking, for me, but one will usually give me a better starting point.