Driving from Zion NP to St. George , Utah last week, I stopped along the side of the road to capture this storm cloud that was forming. The similarity in color between the mountains and the sky caught my eye. In between was a picture of calm and peacefulness reminding me that in the midst of every storm in life, there is always a place of serenity and peace if we look for it.
Specific Feedback Requested
Im not sure if the composition works with a bright sky breaking in between the dark sky and mountains. If there is a better composition that would work and maintain the feel of the image, I would be interested.
Technical Details
This was taken with the Panasonic Lumix G5 using a 14-140mm lens at 84mm. F16 with ISO of 400 at 1/400 exposure. I edited the photo in On1 starting with bringing the saturation to 0, adding white and black point with some contrast. I then added in the saturation, upped the vibrance, turned down the haze and upped the structure slightly.
Carrie,
Welcome to NPN!
I think you found a interesting image with some nice light and clouds. I like the dramatic clouds and not sure if more of the clouds could be included. A panorama image could be a possibility. the foreground is a bit too dark for my taste and tends to break up the image. It could come from setting black point which affects both contrast and saturation. Have fun experimenting with the software. You don’t always have to set white and black points. Also trying taking images with different placements of the horizon (e.g. horizon near the bottom or the top). If the clouds are great sometimes you only need a small amount of ground to anchor the image. Here is an example of a fairly extreme pano crop of your image.
Thanks so much for the feedback. I like the crop and agree that the dark foreground detracted from the image. Also your suggestion to forego setting black point for every image is a good one.
First of all, welcome to NPN! Great to have you here. A terrific first post!
I really like what youv’e expressed here and I think you’ve accomplished your vision of the scene. The drama of the dark cloud up top is mirrored a bit in the mountain - separated by a bright, but well contained sky. This is a great and grand view landscape scene and image.
My biggest suggstion would be to work on the blues of the darker, shadow areas. In general the darker areas are a bit blue. I think Bryan’s crop suggestion along with some color adjustments in the shadows would work quite nicely.
The question and observation I have has to do with the foreground. I do really like the colors that are added and compliment the grander view. What I’m wondering about is the fence line. The fence line isn’t a problem per se, but in the larger view there seem to be some anomolies… maybe it’s the resolution and I can’t really see what the original scene looks like, but at the large view the foreground seems problematic (although I really like the colors and the inclusion of the foreground as an anchor to the grand landscape.)
I think the composition is excellent as presented. Just the color and foreground question I have.
Thanks for sharing and we look forward to more images and your contributions to NPN!
Thank you so much for your feedback! I am assuming that the work on the blues in the shadows would be for the purpose of desaturating the blue a bit? I will take another look at the foreground and clean that up as well.
