Storm Brewing


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nottipiglet

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Apr 20, 2006
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Storm1.jpg


Criticisms welcome... :devil:
 

Hmmmm... This almost looks like it was taken from YCK? Well, it looks a bit dull.

Well, you may want to work on the sharpening and contrast.

Getting a bit more color in there can help too, like this:
boracay_storm.jpg


or this:

ortigas_storms.jpg
 

The contrast is tricky. It was drizzling slightly and generally foggy. I have already upped the contrast. Any more and it may look artificial, and the clouds will look too dark.

I wanted to capture the mood, rather than the colour (because there was none). In bad weather, it is best to shoot for the gloomy look.

The weather was much worst than those shown in your pictures. Yours still looked cheery with blue skies. I want to show gloom gloom gloom. So I removed the colour, gave it a sepia tone.

It was drizzling a bit.. and I had to take care not to damage my equipment as well. :)
 

Hmmm looking at it again, maybe I will try upping the contrast for the buildings only.... Another thing I can try is the tri-tone Sepia... Gives Sepia more depth. Maybe try it in 16-bit per channel... we'll see... :)
 

Since you posted your 2 photos there, perhaps I can critique them?

The 1st one is quite a nice photo of the clouds, but the tree stump there is very distracting. It does not provide a nice foreground interest, so I'd suggest that you reframe to exclude it or clone it away. Also, it doesn't help that the horizon is smack in the middle.

For the 2nd photo, you have included the buildings at the bottom. In such weather, the colours will be completely washed out, so they appear dull and under-exposed. I would suggest that you pan upwards to exclude at least the bottom 1/4 of the photo since they don't actually add any aesthetic value. The clouds here are not dramatic enough to stand on its own, so I think you would have to keep some buildings to make things more interesting. 1/3 buildings, 2/3 sky perhaps? And since the colours are so poor anyway, I think you should try experimenting with black and white or sepia.
 

the gloom dont really come thru, rather its the flattness that catches the attention.

Suggestion: darken the buildings to retain only the silhouette with the faintest of details. And the contrasts in the clouds certainly have to go up to realise the full dramatic potential in it.

Now whether these achieve the gloomy mood you felt then, remains an open question, but what is more certain is that the full potential in the pic is realised, and what that is may be immaterial.

In other words this may not be the picture to convey the mood you felt.
 

espion said:
the gloom dont really come thru, rather its the flattness that catches the attention.

Suggestion: darken the buildings to retain only the silhouette with the faintest of details. And the contrasts in the clouds certainly have to go up to realise the full dramatic potential in it.

Now whether these achieve the gloomy mood you felt then, remains an open question, but what is more certain is that the full potential in the pic is realised, and what that is may be immaterial.

In other words this may not be the picture to convey the mood you felt.

I will try to play with the darkness of the buildings as suggested. :)

As for the contrast, I'm not sure that increasing it will increase the depth. The dark part may become too dark. I may then have to play with the dodge tool. I will try.

As for whether there is a better picture to convey the mood... there will always be a better picture. But it is not that easy to catch it. If it is all grey like in most storms, it is also not ideal because it lacks contrast and depth. If it is generally blue, it is also not so gloomy. In short, this is the best I've got so far.
 

nottipiglet said:
Since you posted your 2 photos there, perhaps I can critique them?

The 1st one is quite a nice photo of the clouds, but the tree stump there is very distracting. It does not provide a nice foreground interest, so I'd suggest that you reframe to exclude it or clone it away. Also, it doesn't help that the horizon is smack in the middle.

For the 2nd photo, you have included the buildings at the bottom. In such weather, the colours will be completely washed out, so they appear dull and under-exposed. I would suggest that you pan upwards to exclude at least the bottom 1/4 of the photo since they don't actually add any aesthetic value. The clouds here are not dramatic enough to stand on its own, so I think you would have to keep some buildings to make things more interesting. 1/3 buildings, 2/3 sky perhaps? And since the colours are so poor anyway, I think you should try experimenting with black and white or sepia.

Oh, I agree. The first pic, however, was taken with a Canon Ixus V3 as I was walking past with my GF. No time to stop and get the framing right.

Second pic: Sony V1 with my arms (and the camera) hanging out the window on the 44th floor. Couldn't see the cam, so it was a blind shot. :D

I agree that B/W or Sepia would help. Those pics are all unprocessed, btw.
 

CloudySky_008_16Bit_.jpg


OK. I have reworked it after taking in suggestions. :)
 

By the way, I have removed the Sepia because I think the brown tone warms the picture up... which is not what I want.

I went back to RAW and re-processed a copy of the picture at 16 bit. From there, I used the curves to alter the contrast. I think that's the only way if I want to retain as much detail as possible. After that, I dodged some of the parts which were too dark with PS.
 

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