The clouds have been remarkable here recently. This was taken from one of many eastern Oregon’s back country roads. We had been talking about cloud compositions and I thought I would try to make an image that primarily about clouds. What’s inspiring about them. Some clouds can lift our spirits while others do the opposite. Clouds are important in our lives. Life just wouldn’t be as good without them, I say.
This was actually cropped from a composition where clouds formed a frame. Perhaps that would be an interesting comparison.
D810 24-70@24mm f/11, 1/80sec, iso 64, TK sharpening
modified from feedback
plus vignetting
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Igor, I like this scene very much. I think you chose to include just enough of the ground to the horizon. I also like the processing and how you composed the scene providing space on the left but not on the right. I think it provides a nice sense of movement and is yet still balanced. One tiny nit, I think you have a dust spot on left side if the frame near the edge about 2/3 of the up.
Nicely done!
Thank you for bringing that up, Alan. I didn’t see it. It looks like a post processing artifact.
Igor,
Another thing clouds do is to accentuate an expansive landscape, as this is. Despite the land only occupying maybe 15% of the space, I find this image to be a great representation of the vast expanse of, in this case, eastern Oregon. And I must say, a fine, clear day! Great clouds of course.
Beside the already mentioned dust bunny, one small suggestion would be to clone out the lone pole that breaches the far horizon. Yes, it’s part of the “Of Clouds and Men” theme (great title btw,) but from a purely eye magnet point of view, it pulls the eye.
An observation is that there seems to be some light fall off on the right side, most notably in the URC. You mentioned cropping to help frame your clouds. My guess is you cropped from the left, which also may have cropped away some light fall off on the left. Just my guess. Polarizer or some filter attached? No biggie, but thought I would mention as it’s what I observed.
Terrific cloudscape.
Lon
Love the title and how you’ve weighted the composition with the sky occupying most of the frame.
Beautiful - seeing the bottoms of the clouds receding into the distance really gives this a sense of depth and space. Personally, I love the pole sticking up into the sky. Did you crop from the left? The open sky and (relatively) featureless land on that side of the frame vs. the denser clouds and darker hills on the right makes this seem a bit weighty on the right.
@Alan_Kreyger, you were right. The artifact was in the original so it couldn’t have been caused processing. I always thought dust bunnies formed on the sensor but since the lens has never been removed I don’t think it’s that.
@Lon_Overacker, the darker area in the bottom right appears to be largely caused by the lens as far as I can tell. When I applied lens correction in ACR it became greatly reduced. I reassessed the image and decided to make the ground brighter overall and to warm it up. I thought that would be appropriate with this subject. The telephone pole had wires that connected to smaller poles making a content aware edit more difficult so I left it alone. I posted the revised version above. These are small changes but they do make a difference,
Nice cloudscape. I prefer the repost, but it is close. I would remove the pole(s). The fence works well for me but the poles don’t really. Not a huge deal though.
Bonnie, yes there is greater cloud concentration on the right. The idea was to have them march from right to left. Here’s the original composition that had more left clouds to provide balance. In the end I preferred the crop. You may like it more.
What do you think of the original, @Harley_Goldman?
I prefer the crop version.
Well, this one has even more open space. You were right, your cropped version has better balance. I like the rework.
I like the low horizon and the blue-yellow contrast. My only thought would maybe be a bit of a vignette to pull the eye into the group of clouds in the center. There’s sort of separate element in them and a vignette would draw attention to it.
Igor,
Your first repost looks great on all counts. I get the cloning of the pole - minor anyway.
Thanks for taking the time to address.
Lon
I’m not an expert on vignetting but decided to give it a try. I didn’t want to darken any of the grass so I erased the vignetting on the bottom half and kept it in the sky. There were several variables in vignetting so I picked the amount that wasn’t too obvious.
I am not a fan of the vignette, Igor. I am probably jaded though. I think it looks too artificial in the scene. Your second image on the original post is very nicely processed I think. I am with Bonnie about the cloud for balance and prefer the uncropped version.
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Igor, my preference is the rework you showed to @Bonnie_Lampley, i actually like how the clouds appear at the top of the frame, and fill more negative space in the URC.
This image is very reminiscent of the series of images of the English countryside shown here recently by @Ian_Wolfenden. I has a very similar feeling to Ian’s images.
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I am a succor for big skies and wide open spaces. This image has that feeling of freedom that you get when you can see the far horizon. I like the second image the best. The one with vignetting doesn’t look as natural to me.
Love this kind of shot, Igor - the clouds, of course, but especially the sense of space. Not sure it needs a vignette, the more evenly balanced light works well for me with this particular scene.
