Posted by Richard Olsen on June 11, 2011 at 12:12 PM
A combination of Arizona fire smoke and Colorado clouds made for a pretty nice sunset last evening. Taken from atop Castle Rock where I'd gone to photograph Peregrine Falcons. Not good light for the birds but pretty awsome to watch nature put on a light show!
I'd appreciate ideas to improve this photo. Processed from a single photo (I have bracketed shots)
I saw a version of this unfold while flying into Denver yesterday evening. Pretty spectacular. It's huge smoke cloud - it became very noticeable about 500 miles east of Denver, and stretched out well beyond that.
I suggest cropping down a scoche to eliminate the clouds poking into the upper frame; they don't add much, and they pull the eye away from the stronger part of scene. Some may say go pano, and that's not a bad way to go, but the negative space in the upper 1/2 adds impact, imo.
Also, there's a lot of noise in the lower 1/2 of the image - what ISO were you using? Since there's no detail down there, you could do some aggressive noise reduction without worrying about the side effects. It appears worse on the right side of the image, like there was some localized dodging that emphasized it.
Posted by Bill Brennan on June 12, 2011 at 9:19 AM
Very dramatic image. To strengthen it, consider cropping tighter as the sky above the clouds does not contribute to the drama; and the same for the right side.
Bill Brennan
Posted by Rod Chandler on June 13, 2011 at 4:03 PM
I agree with Bill on cropping off those clouds on top. The real interest is much lower in the image. Great color and great timing. Love it.
Posted by Dan Walters on June 14, 2011 at 10:36 PM
Discussion
4 repliesI'd appreciate ideas to improve this photo. Processed from a single photo (I have bracketed shots)
I suggest cropping down a scoche to eliminate the clouds poking into the upper frame; they don't add much, and they pull the eye away from the stronger part of scene. Some may say go pano, and that's not a bad way to go, but the negative space in the upper 1/2 adds impact, imo.
Also, there's a lot of noise in the lower 1/2 of the image - what ISO were you using? Since there's no detail down there, you could do some aggressive noise reduction without worrying about the side effects. It appears worse on the right side of the image, like there was some localized dodging that emphasized it.
Bill Brennan