Critique on brightness and overall contrast please!

[milosh]

Hi everyone,

Here's a photo I took two days ago, it's a colossal cumulo-nimbus cloud. It was taken with D60 and 18-105mm @60 mm, ISO 100, f8 and 1/800 sec. shutter speed.

As for the processing, I increased the contrast with curves, while protecting the cloud from being blown out. I also brightened the sky with exposure adjustment, using a mask to protect the cloud. Now, I still feel that the image is a bit dark but I can't increase the exposure since I'm getting an ugly halo around the edge of the cloud. I tried changing the mask but with no effect. I think increasing brightness would be bad since the whole photo seems a bit flat. What do you think, is it too dark, what would you do with it?
I don't mind that the ground is so dark.

Thanks for looking and reading.

[LeeR]

I agree that letting the buildings, etc., below go dark is all right as long as you are getting what you want in the clouds. For that reason I think you can push the contrast a bit further than you have here. I also suspect a white balance adjustment may help. OK, let me put that another way: I know it would help because I tried it.
Still, as dramatic as these kinds of cloud formations are, I rarely find them to make for great photographs. I suspect it is because they are a bit impersonal. You have to make it personal to make people care about it. Put people setting up for a picnic in the foreground, or a pilot prepping his plane and then, perhaps, the drama will become personal.

[milosh]

Thank you Lee. This is funny, since this was taken in raw, I experimented with white balance in ACR and decided to leave it on auto, particularly because of the yellow/orangish tint it gave to the bottom part of the cloud. Now, thanks to you, I tried all the other settings again and found Daylight to be much more pleasing, and the tint is still there(?). And I agree about it being impersonal, but that's just how it happened. Thanks.

[RecurrentNerve]

As Lee says, it's a little impersonal, but hot damn, that's one heck of a cloud! I'd have taken a shot or two of it myself. These sharp-edged cumulonimbi are great - the temperature of the cloud is drastically different to the surrounding air, hence the sharp edges.

I'd keep it in the archives, it might make a great replacement sky for another shot one day. Also try it in black and white.