Lenticular Over Chalk Bluff Road

I was out shooting last sunday when we had some pretty awesome weather going on. Here in bishop where this shot wast taken it was t-shirt and shorts weather, well almost. But above the sherwin summit, it was whole other world, very strong winds and blizzard conditions norht of lake crowley. This is probably the most spectacular lenticular I've seen yet. Even had a nice crown. Shot this in color but preferred the b&w treatment. Looking to get some feed back on my conversion to b&w. Thanks!

canon 5d, 24-105 lens, cropped the top off to make a semi pano.

Man!!!! Cory,
What a great shot! I love the light on the bluff/hills - it has that ominous and "God" light feeling for me. Is there anyway to get more shadow detail in the upper right of the main cloud - I can see hints of it, but getting those shadows may cause the rest to be too dark???? What did you use for your horizon? Did you try a LAB conversion for either sharpening or color/B&W contrast?

Cory,

What an incredibly massive cloud formation. Even with the inclusion of the hills, it's really hard to tell the immense scale. I'm no expert on b&w conversions, but this looks pretty good to me. The darkness on the right is due, I'm sure, to the shadowing of the clouds, so I'm fine with that. It adds some drama.

Lon

Michie: I think my polarizer has something to do with the right side of the crown going a bit darker than the rest. I might be able to lighten it up a bit without affecting the rest. I used the red channel to convert to b&w and then used adjustment layers with different blending modes along with their attached mask.

Lon: There is more detail in the lower right. After looking at this all day I might lessen my mask in that area and then burn some in on the lower left. I've accentuated the lighting present in this version. the dappled light on the hills was from the racing clouds overhead.

thanks for your comments!

Very nice! The starkness of the cloud makes it for me. It reminds me of the supercell storms you see on the Great Plains.

Thanks Jason. Looks like you've got some pretty cool weather shots yourself! I too love watching the sky for the next storm.

awesome. It looks like a Japan retaliation for Manzanar.

richard:

WOW, this is a really large lenticular here, Cory. I think the B&W helps emphasis the cloud more too, a very nice capture.

Impressive photo... From the cloud formation witnessed.
Otherwise, the photo itself does not strike me as special.
I would still totally see it featured in a book on clouds
or weather. It reminds me of the Arun Tazieff volcano
books photos.

Really nice, Cory! This one must be stunning in print form. The range of tones is impressive. I love the relationship that is portrayed between the landscape and the clouds here. Good work!