Clouds on Horizon

[jackieleeXD]

Hello all!
Well I was at work today and I snapped this picture of the clouds on the beach.
I know the composition isn't stunning but I couldn't abandon my post at work for very long.



I was wondering how to make pictures like this better/brighter for future reference. Any ideas on composing the shot would be great too because the clouds seem to over over the horizon like this pretty often where I live.

Just ordered my first DSLR, so hopefully we get more crazy cloud formations soon!

Thanks!

[HockeyFan]

It might be worth getting a trial copy of Photomatrix, and see if you can get 3 bracketed exposures of a shot like this. Then see what Photomatrix can do as far as HDR processing, and see what improvements (if any) you get.

[dmmccarthy]

Originally Posted by HockeyFan

It might be worth getting a trial copy of Photomatrix, and see if you can get 3 bracketed exposures of a shot like this. Then see what Photomatrix can do as far as HDR processing, and see what improvements (if any) you get.

If you're shooting RAW, a bracket of three even at +/- 1EV won't give you much in Photomatix that you can't get out of your RAW file processor. For HDR, you'd be better off metering the highlights and the shadows and bracketing between the values.

If you're shooting JPEGs, you might get a bit more out of it with Photomatix. You might also try Dynamic-Photo HDR. Both products have some very nice built-in effects which provide a nice place to begin your tonemapping.

-D.

[Brinovak1]

I think the composition is good. Only, would either like to see a little more beach, or none at all. I like the space above the clouds. It makes the clouds more impressive to me.
Also, I agree with the suggestions. If you can't do HDR maybe just try upping the contrast a bit.