Swirling Clouds

[joebranko]

Shot late in the afternoon looking into the bright sunshine. A lot of the foreground was in silhouette and I had to use the shadows function in Lightroom to see any of it. C&C appreciated.

[Ziggy]

Nice shot and nice title. They are swirling.

[Shadowman]

Nice recovery on the shadows.

[IzzieK]

The whole image is wonderfully done, Joe...considering the difficulty of the shot as you described. I like textured clouds like this one and you nailed it here very well. Not only that, with that cloud, the view below it did not take away from your title but the cloud enhanced it. Excellent shot!

[Kris V]

The whole image is wonderfully done, Joe...considering the difficulty of the shot as you described. I like textured clouds like this one and you nailed it here very well. Not only that, with that cloud, the view below it did not take away from your title but the cloud enhanced it. Excellent shot!

+1

[joebranko]

Nice shot and nice title. They are swirling.

Thanks Jim.

[joebranko]

The whole image is wonderfully done, Joe...considering the difficulty of the shot as you described. I like textured clouds like this one and you nailed it here very well. Not only that, with that cloud, the view below it did not take away from your title but the cloud enhanced it. Excellent shot!

Thanks Izzie!

[joebranko]

Thanks John.

Nice recovery on the shadows.

[joebranko]

+1

Thank you.

[Gayathrie Senaratne]

nice capture...........

[bnnrcn]

Nice colors and composition, I like the look of the clouds

[Manfred M]

Joe, while I like the composition itself, I find there are a number of technical issues that you might want to think about.

The first thing that strikes me is that the colours are quite muddy. I know we've discussed this before; you should check your white point and black point (and likely the midpoint as well). Tweak those a bit and I suspect you will get a far more pleasing image.

I think you might be hitting the limits of what Lightroom can do for you; I find the foreground much too dark and I'm not sure how much you can recover with the Lightroom's dodge tool; but in my view, the trees and down could really use some lightening up to bring out the details in the foreground and middle ground of this image. Contrast seems a tad low, so I would be tempted to bring that up to add a bit more "pop" to this image.

White balance has no "right answer", as sunset shots are by definition mixed light. I find this view is a touch too yellow, so dialing them back a bit might help too. I haven't really touched the overall exposure, as I don't know what things looked like when you took the shot, but if it were my image, I might be tempted to lighten it up a bit.

I'd also be tempted to add a vignette to direct the viewer's eyes away from the bright top left corner of the shot and more to the middle.





This might give you an idea of what's in my head.

[joebranko]

nice capture...........

Thanks Gayathrie.

[joebranko]

Joe, while I like the composition itself, I find there are a number of technical issues that you might want to think about.

The first thing that strikes me is that the colours are quite muddy. I know we've discussed this before; you should check your white point and black point (and likely the midpoint as well). Tweak those a bit and I suspect you will get a far more pleasing image.

I think you might be hitting the limits of what Lightroom can do for you; I find the foreground much too dark and I'm not sure how much you can recover with the Lightroom's dodge tool; but in my view, the trees and down could really use some lightening up to bring out the details in the foreground and middle ground of this image. Contrast seems a tad low, so I would be tempted to bring that up to add a bit more "pop" to this image.

White balance has no "right answer", as sunset shots are by definition mixed light. I find this view is a touch too yellow, so dialing them back a bit might help too. I haven't really touched the overall exposure, as I don't know what things looked like when you took the shot, but if it were my image, I might be tempted to lighten it up a bit.

I'd also be tempted to add a vignette to direct the viewer's eyes away from the bright top left corner of the shot and more to the middle.





This might give you an idea of what's in my head.

Thanjs Manfred. Your observations are, as usual, very insightful and helpful. I am still having trouble with muddy looking pics and difficulty in correcting them. Your comments are greatly appreciated!

[Manfred M]

Thanjs Manfred. Your observations are, as usual, very insightful and helpful. I am still having trouble with muddy looking pics and difficulty in correcting them. Your comments are greatly appreciated!

Muddy look is usually a black point / white point issue. This is one of the first things I check and correct when I am looking at my images.

[selig1656]

Simply put well done .

[joebranko]

Muddy look is usually a black point / white point issue. This is one of the first things I check and correct when I am looking at my images.

I have researched black point/white point and have found an alternate method of adjusting them. Here is another try of this shot with black/white point adjusted as per my latest findings.



This version is slightly brighter than my first effort, and perhaps slightly brighter than the actual conditions. However I was interested in seeing if there was any improvement in the muddy look.

[Manfred M]

I have researched black point/white point and have found an alternate method of adjusting them. Here is another try of this shot with black/white point adjusted as per my latest findings.

This seems to have worked as the image looks a lot more crisp. You've also cleaned up the heavy yellow overtones, so the image is a lot cooler. Again, not having seen the area you were shooting, I can't tell for sure, but my guess is that the concrete platform might normally be close to a neutral gray in colour.

[joebranko]

This seems to have worked as the image looks a lot more crisp. You've also cleaned up the heavy yellow overtones, so the image is a lot cooler. Again, not having seen the area you were shooting, I can't tell for sure, but my guess is that the concrete platform might normally be close to a neutral gray in colour.

Thanks again Manfred. Yes, I was playing with the temp. slider and went too much on the cool side.