Cluds Get in My Way

[Faith Huddleston]

I took this early evening (about 8pm) with my Kodak Z981 on manual. There was a storm blowing in (all we got was wind, thunder and lightening). Settings shown below along with questions.



Shutter: 1/80
Aperture: f2.8
ISO: 64
Light Source: Fluorescent

No tripod, but was resting camera on husband's 3/4 ton truck for stability.

Straightened and sharpened in Picasa.

1. How is the composition? Is the tractor and building too distracting or does it add to the story of the picture? After posting, I noticed that these look a lot darker on here than they did on my computer or on the camera screen.

2. Detail of clouds? Did I capture them well enough?

Although I have posted in a couple of the other forums, I am still new to the world of photography, in particular the manual settings, but really want to learn. My first digital was a Kodak C613 and after playing with it for about 3 years, I decided to go up a notch and raise the bar for myself. Appreciate and enjoy these forums and this web site as I am learning so much from it. Comments and suggestions most welcomed.

Thank you,
Faith

[JFSanders]

Faith, I will be back in a bit and give you some suggestions. I have to make a run to the store for the head chef. But quickly, resize your picture that you posted to 700 pixels on the longest side as it is blowing up the thread. You should be able to do so in photobucket just make sure you make a copy of the original and resize that one! Or just choose the medium size to post.

Jim

Ok, I am back. This is an interesting photograph to me because I like storm clouds. Yes, the tractor and building are distractions. The cut off line for a photograph like this would be the horizon line at the trees in the back of the field as the grass adds nothing to the shot. Cropping will present problems due to the tractor intersecting with the horizon line. You have exposed for the clouds quite well. Why you chose fluorescent as your white balance is probably because you where thinking about the sky but cloudy WB may have given you more tonal range.

[Faith Huddleston]

Thanks, JF. I apologize for the size mess-up. I had re-sized it once and then went back to the original on my computer made some additional changes, uploaded again to Photobucket and posted here completely forgetting about re-sizing again. I must admit that I have come to enjoy your wit on these forums as well as your suggestions. I had this on fluorescent because I was playing around to see how it affected the photo. Here is one taken at the same time that the light source is set on daylight. I think I did a little sharpening and definitely did some cropping but otherwise it is as I took it. And yes, I did re-size it already.



shutter: 1/30
Aperture: f2.8
ISO 100
Daylight

Thanks again,
Faith

[JFSanders]

Ah, that is a good way to learn about light! The fluorescent setting will pump up the magenta to correct for the green cast thrown by the tubes. A good filter for sky and clouds is a red filter to enhance contrast if you want to do it in camera. Or you can do it in post processing. Camera filters is a pretty informative site for all kinds of filters.

Try bumping up your ISO so that you can stop down to F/8 or F/11 This should give you great DOF at the wide end of your lens. This will help with making everything sharp in the scene.

The second photo is nice but has a blown out spot on the left side. Stopping down may help with that some. As if you have some information in that spot you could massage it down to bring out the details in the clouds in there.

Jim

[crockny]

Actually I had a different idea -- if you were to the left of the truck and lower down it might have added some foreground interest for the picture ... nice clouds!

[Krusty79]

I agree with crockny about the foreground interest. Either the building or tractor, but not both. It helps to give some context to the clouds, also. The color balance looks a lot better in the 2nd shot.

Here is a good previous thread on shooting clouds. Navcom has a lot of good points:
Cloud Shot - Composition and Settings

[Faith Huddleston]

I almost didn't come back to see if there were any more comments, but so glad I did.

At the time I was using the truck as my tri-pod, since I ddin't have one. I have gotten a small one so maybe next time I can move and still have camera stability. Yes, I do think moving to the left and down would have added more foreground interest. I will also keep in mind to try raising my ISO so I can stop to F8 or F11 and see how that affects the DOF.

I am looking forward to perusing the thread regarding taking pictures of clouds. Thank you very much for all of your input.

Ms. Faith

[Jim Bryant]

Really dramatic clouds...nice capture!