Cloudscapes and Sunsets
Cloudscapes and Sunsets « previous | index | next »
White Feather in Pink Ribbons 
 
A very unusual mix of post-storm cloud cover. This is looking towards TPA, so a few persistent con trails were mixed in with the storm clouds, along with smog particulate remnants. (Look closely and you will see a very small, short, fresh contrail of a jet just to the right of the big pine tree.) I did not notice the white feather (floating through the sky like some disembodied mass of swirling ectoplasm) until post-production in Photoshop. I was more concerned with the framing of the shot, as there was an ugly streetlight and power box which ruined the shot and had to be removed. This is the only shot in this album that underwent surgery. Can you tell where the power box used to be? (Hint: part of the lake was cloned and flipped vertically 180 degrees to cover the box. The streetlight was painted out with the brush tool. After correcting for color and shading, the second layer was merged into the original shot.) Exposure was reduced and chroma was slightly increased. Applied Photoshop cooling filter no. 80 to bring out the blue of the sky. What a lucky, beautiful shot that would have looked ten times better with a more expensive lens and low-light film. Digital is fine with enough light, but not the best choice for twilight. Nonetheless, it's still a fairly nice shot.