This image was taken on our recent trip to the South African Highveld. These magnificent stacks of cumulus were building up over a tree on a distant hilltop, and I found my new 10-22mm lens to be too wide to give it the scale it needs (the clouds looked small, when they were in fact huge).
I noticed that the circular polarising filter I had bought (Kenko Pro CPL) was a 77mm thread, which was also the thread of my 100-400mm lens...voila!!
A little adjustment in the white balance and adding some to the black channel got this image to the mood I wanted it to have during post-processing. Cropped a bit from top and bottom to get rid of dead space on top and cluttered bushes at the bottom.
All comments most welcome!
Techs:
Canon 7D with 100-400mm L IS USM @ 100mm
f8.0 @ 1/1000 SS @ ISO-320
Last edited by Morkel Erasmus; 05-13-2010 at 05:51 PM.
Morkel, my kind of landscape completely. If you had complete control over the weather I would have loved to see some light on the tree as it has been lost a little. Love those African clouds.
thanks Hilary - I have some light on the tree as the sun was actually coming from more to my side of the shot, but I darkened it on purpose to enhance the mood here...
Morkel,
I am with Hilary on this one. The overall image also feels a bit dark to my taste. Also, slightly more space at the bottom would have been better. Is the horizon sloping in the original? Thanks for sharing.
Hi Morkel, Talk about clouds that have impact...this is it! Nice job framing the comp with the sepia tone adding some drama. I like the small tree and placement but felt it was getting a bit lost in the image due to the darness in that area. I lightened the area a bit to show some more separation. Another idea!!
thanks for the varied views Dave, Lance, Hilary & Sabyasachi.
I did a rework tonight and went for a pseudo-HDR (using manual blending masks) to get detail and a lighter tone on the tree and maintain the mood I was going for in the sky. How does this sit with you guys?
I like the direction you're going in but agree with Dave's suggestion. I do think you can get more drama from those magnificent clouds, especially with your skills in this area.
BW is an interesting suggestion. Would love to see that. Otherwise, your last post is my favorite -- it doesn't look quite as "processed" as the first. Love the composition.
Hey Morkel,
Yeah....I was away when you posted this one and missed it! I think you are on the right track with the re-post but it lacks some of the color of the OP....which IMO is necessary. I think you can get there by doing a screen layer at reduced opacity on the sky and then just some levels layers tweaks. I do agree on a bit more FG if possible but you really have some excellent drama in that sky!
Overwhelming...
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