Sky On Fire

[dje]

I know sky's by themselves can be boring but we had this freakish sunset here this evening about half an hour ago. Just had to share it with you. I'll be keeping it for a substitute sky in another image !!

Dave

[Donald]

Now, THAT'S a sunset!!

Dave - You undersold yourself. The intro text about the sky being boring etc. I was expecting something 'Yes, ok. Thanks very much'. This is way above and beyond that. You've got those trees in it that give us scale and context.

I think it stands a very good image in its own right.

And, boy, that's some sky.

[dje]

Thanks Donald,, glad you liked it. I meant to mention that the colours and light are natural, very little pp work done. And the light that the sky threw on the ground was quite eerie - it would have been good for a reflective light scene. However it only lasted for about 5 minutes.

Dave

[RockNGoalStar]

I agree with Donald, although I'd like to see just a little bit more foreground. Did you crop it out? Or did you not capture it at all!

But WOW! What a sky!

[dje]

Thanks Tommy. I stitched three shots together for this and that process in itself required some cropping. I could have left a bit more foreground in but it was just house roofing and didn't really look that good. There was no time to find a better vantage point with a better foreground.

Dave

[Fit]

Beautiful. I might think about another version that brings up the blue a bit more for heightened drama, albeit less real perhaps.

[elfbob]

Dave, have you ever looked at the trial edition of Topaz labs Detail to enhance cloud formations?

[Bobobird]

WOW and double-WOW. That is some fantastic sky and so well presented.

[elfbob]

[IMG][/IMG] here's the before image i captured of a rare 2 frontal boundary cold front at sunset


here the image after i tweaked it slightly using Topaz labs Detail 2

[Donald]

I think, Robert, it's always good if you can have a lot of tools in the bag and use them well when it is appropriate to do so, as you have done in your example.

But I also think it's important to know when to not use the tools and appreciate that what you're presented with (in this case, by nature) has got it all and doesn't need any further human interference (in post processing). I think what Dave was presented with was one of those cases and he very wisely did very little if anything to it.

[dje]

Thanks Chris, Robert and Bobo for your comments. Robert I've seen Topaz referred to on this site once or twice but never tried it. Still trying to master PS - a task which will probably keep me going forever more !!

Dave