Cloud in flight

I spotted this cloud set against a dark storm cloud and scrambled for my camera. I felt fortunate to capture it as it dissipated very quickly. If I would have had to change lenses I probably would have missed it. These unique moments in time are my favorite subjects.

What technical feedback would you like if any?

Open to all suggestions.

What artistic feedback would you like if any?

Open to all suggestions. Interested particularly for feedback in two areas. Do you feel the square crop works for this image (I have a strong bias to square crops)? I have been experimenting with the amount of negative space in my images and am trending towards more.

Pertinent technical details or techniques:

Single-shot with Fuji X-T2, 100-400mm @ 100mm, 1/210s, f/16.

Rework:

Original:

2 Likes

Dave,

I love clouds and love moments like this. I’m quite certain I would have grabbed a camera, any camera and pointed towards the sky.

Just a couple thoughts. If it were mine I would boost the white luminosity and even bump the contrast a little bit. I just see the cloud as needing to be a brighter white.

Also, given the crop, I’m wondering if you have more sky around to give the wing tips a little more room? Very minor, just a thought.

Lon

I really like cloudscapes and this captured a fine one. I am with @Lon_Overacker about giving it a bit more room around the clouds and the contrast bump. Also, I find the bright area in the LRC to be an eye magnet, as my attention gets pulled there a lot. Burn or clone?

I think the B&W works well with this image. I agree with @Lon_Overacker about increasing the contrast a little bit.

For all I know, this could be a somewhat long exposure shot of a stream and I love it. So many ways to interpret this image.

Wonderful cloud abstract, I get the impression of a soaring bird in flight.

Agree with the comments you’ve gotten on adding contrast, and burning/cloning the LRC.

I checked the histogram on this, and you have a ton of room on the right side. Especially in B&W you usually benefit from using as much of the tonal range as possible. Your recent ice abstract had a similar issue, don’t be overly afraid of burning out highlights. Being too conservative in this regard leads to not using enough of your tonal range. In B&W you can get away with more contrast and push closer to pure white and pure black than you can in color images.

There are a couple nasty dust spots, one halfway down the right frame edge, and one just below the left “wing” of the bird.

Thanks everyone for the great feedback, @Lon_Overacker @Harley_Goldman @Nathan_Klein @Adhika_Lie @Ed_McGuirk.

I just posted my latest edits to the original post. Unfortunately, I didn’t capture anything more to the left and right to adjust the crop. I attempted to add some contrast and dodge the cloud. I think the rework is much stronger.

@Ed_McGuirk, thanks for the input on this and my ice abstract regarding utilizing more of the tonal range. Many of my images could benefit this advice. I am reworking a few images from my catalog to incorporate more of the tonal range.