Sunset Storm

[BulldogMom]

Last night we had a storm coming up at sunset. I saw these awesome clouds with the sunset colors shining through them so I ran outside and up to the railroad tracks to snap a picture. Yes, standing on metal in a storm, real smart. I had visions of giant lightning bolts coming out of those clouds!

So given the fact that I was in a hurry to get back inside. How bad did I do on this one?

Composition too off balance with the taller tree and darker clouds on the same side?
Is the whole shot just too dark?

What do you think?



Camera: Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi
Exposure: 0.017 sec (1/60)
Aperture: f/14.0
Focal Length: 40 mm
ISO Speed: 400
Exposure Bias: 0 EV

[Ben Holder]

I like it. The rolling clouds are really interesting, and I think are your main subject here, so having the trees as silhouettes really frames the clouds without adding any green to clash with them. I don't think it is too dark. were the clouds moving really fast? Because they look all fury and blurred like this was a long exposure, but 1/60 is definitely not long.

Overall I think this is a really good image. There isn't much to critique it on. The only thing I would say would be that it would be nice if there was another subject in relation to the clouds; to give some perspective of how big they are.

Also, I have no idea how this would look, but try cropping it to square from the right. I could be totally wrong, but a square crop may add to the unease of the storm and make it a more effective capture. If it looks horrible than just igonore my ramblings .

[BulldogMom]

Thanks Ben,

No it wasn't a long exposure, it's a bit blurred because I was hand holding the camera. Didn't take time to grab the tripod. I'm sure my hands were a bit shaky too; you should have heard the thunder! The clouds were moving but not that fast. Some of the blur may come from the noise reduction as well.

My Camera tends to start adding noise at ISO 400 especially in low light so I did use some noise reduction.

There was a power pole behind that big tree, maybe I could have moved over a bit to include that for some additional perspective. The clouds were pretty big and hanging low.

At least most of the storm missed us; this time.