Cloud 9.5

This was my last cloud shot of the day. It was late in the evening and I was shooting near a surfing competition. The wind had dropped of significantly and there were a bunch of low hanging clouds all along the horizon.

Because the clouds were moving so slow I decided to try a few long exposures. I was shooting away from the sun and the pastel blues and pinks were starting to intensify.

I was taking a shot just to the right of this cloud, when I noticed it was starting to take on a nice shape and get some separation from the pack. Just then one of the surfers came up to me and wanted to chat. I remember fumbling , between chatting, recomposing the shot, and trying to decide if I should take off the filter since it was getting darker.

The shot came out better than I anticipated and I only had to remove a dark shadow on the bottom right from a bunch of seaweed.

Specific Feedback Requested

Since it was so late in the evening there wasn’t much light and the contrast was low.
I wanted to keep this soft feel and upbeat emotion in my edit.
It took me a while to find a WB I was happy with.
I wanted to keep it warm but I found that with too much yellow it became dingy looking.
Adding more blue, cleaned it up but it started to feel too cool and unnatural.
All critiques are welcome.

Technical Details

30sec f/6.3 ISO 100 139mm Sony a7r2

5 Likes

I love the soft clouds and their interesting shape. The colors are gorgeous with the pink-blue-pink horizontal areas. (Why does someone always want to visit when a wonderful and fleeting moment comes along?)

Andre,

“OH MY!” is a term I reserve for speechless responses to images that get posted.

This is “story book” meaning, fantasy with unicorns and rainbows… And I mean this is a most complimentary way.

Wow.

Beautiful. The colors are wonderful. Love the pastel appearance.

Wonderful color and form.

This is a mighty dreamscape Andre! Like Lon said, unicorns and rainbows and pinky blue clouds that are in reality sky ships travelling to places unknown and unknowable. For me, the colors work in great unison and really enhance this photo’s dreamlike quality. Wow!

@Pamela_Sherlock @David_Schoen @Jim_Gavin @Lon_Overacker @Diane_Miller thanks for the feedback, the “On My” and support for the unicorns :slight_smile:
@Pamela_Sherlock I like your sky ships line of thought. I think I might have to borrow that for some future cloud works :grin:

1 Like

This is very nice. Colors are great, light is very nice.

Great shot! That pink sea is something else. Cover my wall with this and I’m a million miles from reality.

This is just so gorgeous! I love that you were able to capture the big cloud cleanly, even with the 30-second exposure. Fantastic!

Wow, what an image! I love this one. The colors and the dreamy feeling are just wonderful. And the composition is just perfect. Nothing to improve here. Please post more images like this:)

Such a gorgeous image Andre! Such a peaceful and pleasing scene to my eyes. It would be wonderful as a large print.

Wow, just perfect. I wouldn’t change a thing. It does have a tropical fairy tale feel.

@Bonnie_Lampley @Carol_Nichols @Ola_Jovall @Mark_Muller @Mike_Friel @Dan_Kearl Thanks for the comments.

@Mike_Friel Your pink sea comment sent me back to the RAW to see how creative I might have gotten with it.
Here’s where all the unicorns came from :grinning:

1 Like

Love, love, love! So soft and serene. Simply wonderful.

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Super nice photo Andre - I love the fluffy colours and I think the composition works wonderfully. Great working pulling this out of that RAW file!

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This picture makes me happy. Soothing pastels, clever name. It has that hint of irreality, just enough for you to sit up and say “what IS that?”

Splendid work

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Andrea, this is beautiful and very peaceful! Yes, using when you expand a low contrast image with Adobe’s tools you get some astonishing colors. (I’ve done that with some regularity with ice photos.) The currently weekly challenge topic is pinned to the page, with this week’s being 1048 Sky Phenomena. We’ll get that tag changed for you so your post will be eligible for the weekly editor’s pick.

1 Like

@Mark_Seaver @andronik @mrbphoto Chris thanks for the comments.
@Mark_Seaver for changing the tag for me.