Iridescence in clouds?
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I am new here and hope it is okay to ask a question about where to find some information. I am particularly fascinated by colors in clouds, but I am not sure if I am using the correct terminology. What exactly does iridescence look like in clouds? I have many cloud photos of colors such as these – is this iridescence or another phenomenon? Thank you so much for your help and patience with a new user!
Blessings
rje623 -
Welcome rje623! Nice picture. I should say iridescence.
For more information about colors in clouds and specifically iridescence I recommend the atoptics site. It is all bout optical phenomena under which iridescence. Here is the link for iridescence: iridescence. You will find many examples. Have fun with it. I look forward to more of your pictures.
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I have really learned a lot from the atoptics site, Hans!! Thank you so much for pointing it out to me! Of course, along with knowledge comes more and more questions, as I observe the skies and wonder if what I see falls into a particular category. I hope I don’t get kicked out for asking TOO many identification questions!
Thanks again!
Ramona
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Oh, this is terribly exciting!!! I did not know there were so many resources where I could learn about clouds and their variability!! I am afraid I am wearing my meteorologist friend out with questions, although he is very patient. I wish I had time to read it all at one time, but I will take it in small bites for now. I am home bound right now, due to many medical issues, but I have an electric scooter and spend much time outside with my “head in the clouds”. It is to the point where I can be inside near a window and just “feel” that there are colors in the sky outside. I don’t know how else to describe it. I have many, many, many cloud images, but I will try to be slow in sharing them. Here is one that I took this past week. I also have some I took of the solar eclipse that have many fascinating aspects in them and I now have hope of understanding what they were.
Thank you for the warm welcome!
Ramona -
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Just wanted to share my favorite iridescense picture. This was featured on NASA’s picture of the day website once. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap160302.html
Just lovely! -
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I am not sure if I should post this here or start a new thread. I know better now what I see in this photo, after having read some information on this site. This is the solar eclipse of 2017, as seen at 97% in Alabama, USA. Please correct me if I am wrong, but I see some corona colors around the sun and iridescence in the clouds on the left. I don’t understand the object/phenomenon to the left of the sun – it looks like the “leftover 3%” of the sun – the part not covered by the moon. It moved around depending on what perspective I shot the photo from, so maybe it was a photographic flare of some sort?
Thanks,
Ramona
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Ramona, it looks like you took the picture without a filter, or at least not one for looking at the sun. The sun, even at 3% is very bright so its impression on the sensor is overwhelming, You only see a very bright circle, slightly deformed. The light around is it not the eclipse corona, that would be seen only during totality. Notice the somewhat oblong shape, and how the longer axis is tilted kind of NW-SE, if you want..
The crescent on the left is probably a lens reflection. Being a lot weaker, it does not completely overwhelm the sensor so you see the actual shape of the covered sun. And look at the axis again, same inclination.
You could confirm this hypothesis by taking a shot of a very bright light (not the sun) with the same lens and filter combination and the light positioned similarly. Check if there is a little bright reflection to the left of it.
Anyway, the effect is magical.
Laurenz, just noticed you posting, that shot is awesome.
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These colors are indeed all around, but one must have its camera at hand because the moments to capture them are very short. Sometimes frustrating knowing you will be too late when you don’t have your camera at hand.
Strange crescent on your picture of the 2017 eclipse. I can’t think of anything you already thought of yourself. When you have the same effect on other pictures as well and on different positions depending on the angle I suppose it is a flare. The funny thing is that the flare shows just the crescent while the sun itself is overexposed and seems to be still rather full or bright. All assuming it is a flare…. Still a nice picture of a memorable moment.
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Welcome to the CAS forum, Ramona! And thank you for launching a dedicated topic to shimmering, dazzling, mesmerizing iridescence. If you explore some of the other forum topics, you may come across a sprinkling of such wonders, many by Hans who seems to have an uncanny ability to be in the right place at the right moment — with camera in hand! He has shared some illuminations that will just knock your socks off.
Below (pareidolia required!), an albino myrmecophaga tridactyla appears to befriend an iridescent turtle. But it could well be something else entirely….
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Thank you for the warm welcome! And it is very much my pleasure to start this thread! My challenge will be to not ask TOO many questions – I just need to sit back and learn for a while. There is one question that I may post, but I will try to not go overboard.
Your description of your image is wonderful! I love the colors and interpretation!
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Keelin, I am so glad that the forum works well again. I would not have liked to miss this truly funny contribution from you. Anyway thanks for the kind words. As to the pareidolia: no need for that to practice. There can’t be any mistake about the albino myrmecophaga tridactyla and his iridescent turtle friend. Fantastic!
It reminded me of a cartoon I love about the ant and the ardvark. Ever seen? This is a six minutes explosion of absurdities. Watch and enjoy.
And some iridescence to end with.
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Ramona, your picture from February 3rd seems to be a partial corona. I say this because the colors are organized in concentric circles and you can see the continuation at the bottom. Here is an example from atoptics.
https://www.atoptics.co.uk/droplets/corona.htm
Iridescence is essentially the same phenomemon, but on more random patches of clouds, so it appears disorganized. See what atoptics says:
https://www.atoptics.co.uk/droplets/irid1.htm
Here my modest shot, corona or iridescence?
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Oh, I LOVE this – and your title for the image, too! May I ask, how do you expose for your shots like this? I normally use manual settings and underexpose my shots some. You may have already shared this information somewhere, in which case a link would be great!
I am occupied with an ill family member now, but I hope to get back to the skies very soon!
Ramona
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Thank you Ramona. The Runaways is a part of a larger picture which I took with 2/3 of a stop overexposure and automatic settings (i.e. P when you might use a Canon). So not manually. In this case it turned out well, but sometimes a neutral setting is better. I try to check the result directly after taking the picture (when I am alert enough to think of it at the moment) and adjust when necessary. My capturing of iridescence is certainly not always successful I must say, so no guarantees. Afterwards I added contrast using the color-curve function of Photoshop. A bit cheating maybe, but I try not to exaggerate. After all you can’t create a color that wasn’t really there. My experience is that mostly the result does not show the brilliance you experienced, because iridescence appears close to the sun and when there is to much light the brilliance will fade. So I often apply some enhancements depending on the picture itself and my taste.
Deleting a post is not possible but when necessary you can ask the moderator (Ian). Mostly it is not worth the trouble imho.
Nice that you sent the corona / iridescence picture to the gallery. All the best with your ill relative and I look forward for new posts from you.
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I have a Sony a6300, that is an interchangeable lens camera with fairly advanced features. I am still learning how to use them.
I keep it mostly in the P mode, which means automatic with some flexibility to adjust speed and F stop. But I find that most of the time the light is too strong for my camera, so subtle colors are overwhelmed. My solution is to use the exposure compensation setting, mostly -1 or -2. I think that’s a feature that a lot of cameras have.
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Maybe it is instructive to show the original from which I made the Runaways. This is the one. I remember that the slight overexposure I used wasn’t really meant for the iridescence, but for a larger layer of cirrus I also captured a few moments before this one. The blues and whites of cirrus will often be more expressive with a little overexposure. Also grey skies will get more vividness that way. You can see some green lensflare in the upper half of he picture, due to the nearness of the sun.
Something like a look in the kitchen
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I am new here and hope it is okay to ask a question about where to find some information. I am particularly fascinated by colors in clouds, but I am not sure if I am using the correct terminology. What exactly does iridescence look like in clouds? I have many cloud photos of colors such as these – is this iridescence or another phenomenon? Thank you so much for your help and patience with a new user!
Oh, this is terribly exciting!!! I did not know there were so many resources where I could learn about clouds and their variability!! I am afraid I am wearing my meteorologist friend out with questions, although he is very patient. I wish I had time to read it all at one time, but I will take it in small bites for now. I am home bound right now, due to many medical issues, but I have an electric scooter and spend much time outside with my “head in the clouds”. It is to the point where I can be inside near a window and just “feel” that there are colors in the sky outside. I don’t know how else to describe it. I have many, many, many cloud images, but I will try to be slow in sharing them. Here is one that I took this past week. I also have some I took of the solar eclipse that have many fascinating aspects in them and I now have hope of understanding what they were.
I am not sure if I should post this here or start a new thread. I know better now what I see in this photo, after having read some information on this site. This is the solar eclipse of 2017, as seen at 97% in Alabama, USA. Please correct me if I am wrong, but I see some corona colors around the sun and iridescence in the clouds on the left. I don’t understand the object/phenomenon to the left of the sun – it looks like the “leftover 3%” of the sun – the part not covered by the moon. It moved around depending on what perspective I shot the photo from, so maybe it was a photographic flare of some sort?
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