incoming storm in HDR

[AlexN]

2 exposures in photomatix3.. The third shot which was for the darker areas was exposed for too long, and the clouds appeared smeared... As I sort of wanted the clouds as the feature of the shot, the 3rd image was dropped, and the resulting HDR was somewhat affected.. Oh well..

Nikon D200 -17-70mm @ F/6.3 ISO200..

Hope you like it...

[matt]

Great shot, Alex.

I snapped a bunch of the same images earlier this arvo which I've not had time to get to yet.

Just one suggestion. I'd tweak the levels a little to bring the foreground a little more into play....and then mask the sky back in.

Other than that...very dramatic.

Weren't those clouds something else:eyepop:

[AlexN]

Didnt they look ominous!!!

Yeah, The foreground was supposed to be taken care of by a 3rd image inserted into the HDR blend.. I tried to bring the foreground out with the 2 other exposures, unfortunately the result was an ugly oversaturated foreground that was plenty noisy... Oh well.. Its not like we wont get it again tomorrow! :)

Im all set up and collimated... Now, the long wait for Saturn.. Im doing some visual astronomy till then, but Me + C11 vs Saturn is on tonight... Fingers crossed!

[matt]

Here ya go 'bro.

Hope you don't mind. Just a quick tweek in CS3....

Looks even more ominous with the foreground visible:scared:

[Octane]

Alex,

Wow! Despite the missing third exposure, this image has come up stunning! If anything, the lack of the final exposure adds to the ominous nature of the scene. The clouds look like mercury!

Well done.

Regards,
Humayun

[RB]

A very nice result.
Lots of detail in the clouds.

Well done.