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Hans, Ok, for the sake of alliteration I’ll give you that, but to me that looks like asperitas definitely
When clouds are duplicatus..layers of different types stacked on top of each other, I have fun with the camera. I never know exactly what I’m going to get. There is fun in that. Lighting is varied from layer to layer. Direction of Movement is varied. etc. At some point I find myself ,,just taking pics rather than seeing a thought out photo. I tend to look for general patterns and construct around highlites using average exposure and contrast rather than anything too specific. Seldom have I been disappointed with this approach to shooting duplicatus. Recently I stumbled upon an entire session of shooting up thru duplicatus, that I had ,,umm, forgotten about. All of it is in the vein of abstract. The shot below is for your entertainment. Feel free to drag it to your screen and make as big as you want. ( suggested)
Roger,,Probably. Its difficult to tell . If the “curtain makes it all the way to the ground, then its praecipitato , precipitation/rain. If the ” curtain” doesn’t make it to ground, evaporates back into the atmosphere, then its virga. So, by your picture , the curtain appears to not make it to ground but you were there and would know for sure.
Easy one , Tony. They are Virga; .the horizontal alto cumulus are not able to hold the moisture so it falls vertical, but notice, it evaporates before it reaches the ground. Virga. Nice sunset shot getting the feel of depth.
Hans, That above pic was a difficult one to say the least. The sky was a flat stratus . When the mammatus began to show there was not enough contrast for the auto focus to work with. So I went to manual focus and as you can imagine I was lucky to get one good shot. Thats another feature of digital. Its very inexpensive to shoot a lot of pics in order to get one good one.
Any monochromatic, one color, photograph becomes a challenge. Using White Balance means calibrating to a white source at every session, something cloud photography doesn’t always give time for. So having various pre programed shooting parameters is what i like. Various levels of contrast , saturation, etc at ones finger tips is great and over time with use one learns the best to use at appropriate times.
That brings up another observation. It took a fair amount of processing the pic to try to capture ethereal of it all..yet comparing the pic as it is on my screen , with the same pic as it is posted here, there is a difference. I’ve noticed this with my pics. They are slightly darker here. Not a big issue but something to be aware of; the subjectivity of the medium we are dealing with. Not everyone’s screen is calibrated so there will variances. At times I remember to give a pic just abit more ‘ light” to offset the bit of darkening that happens when posted here. So,all that we may go thru can’t be taken too seriously, unless we are printing these pics for display then its just the damned printer that has to be calibrated and adjusted and kept full of ink etc.
So yes, experimenting is a lot of what we do. Exploring clouds with the new inexpensive digital tools opens the field up to a whole lot more people. Digital photography is the peoples art. ( Hint for CAS Members to jump in with the fun.)
Below, Went with a lot of white, hilights. Seemed appropriate for seeing clouds.
I SEE CLOUDS
Hans..Getting the contrast right is so important.Clouds pop out and depth is established with good contrast control. But it isn’t just that. There is, range in the gray scale control ,and for what desired affect. As per below,there is no absolute black nor pure white in the shot. It is about the subtlety of the gray scale to demonstrate a mystical , i suppose, ethereal sense to the pic. Your pond pic with the misty gray clouds like fog does the same for me. Also, details in the shadows and in the hilites can be lost for the sake of ” contrast”. Some camera critics, say the one thing digital Nikons have over Canon is the Range of the CMOS used. Yet good processing after the shot can achieve desired results.
Fantastique! Hans, sometimes I like to classify cloud pics into Phenomenal, Phantoms and Fantastique. Your Pic strikes me as a ” Fantastique”..real yet out of this world”. Definitely getting a Twilight Zone feel .
Then there is the Visual Metaphor.
” Minions”
BRAVO Hans! Many an encore I hope! Below is an example of something I do during monsoon; brave the 100f + with high humidity and explore the towering nimbus…with out rope,pinions nor spikes. Sometimes I go bare foot with zoom telephoto. Just know where the ants are. anyway, B&W turns these towering clouds into mountains, cliffs and valleys: oriental in orientation.
Sky Mountain of the Pileus Palace.
Haa! The Contrail question..maybe once a year I find them inspirational..okay, maybe twice a year. They do let me know the moisture content way up there. Long tail= high moisture compared to short tail,,which is telling for real cirrus. George has a point: its getting difficult to separate contrail from cirrus. I have certainly observed a whole sky taken over by contrail spred…and believe too many zeeny arcs are the result of contrail. But, like a certain president elect, they are there, deal with it…Twisted ? Yes,,now on to the contrail..,,heres me dealing with it…..
Roger,,Yes, not an ordinary formation. You have contrails in the sky, I venture ,what appears to be a comb for bad hair days is a section of contrail the winds are blowing to the left. Further down, closer to the sun and horizon, winds are pushing clouds and contrail in the same direction.
Hans,,,Intervalometer…thats the word..a stand alone interval timer..Canon makes a model or two .Nikon may make one,,and the accessory market has a few you can choose from. For Time Lapse movie making, they are a lot less expensive than the 5DR..Im not sure but the new Canon 80D may also have one built in..maybe not.A while back, at CAS’s original website,,a separate B&W Thread was created and maintained I’m not so sure one is necessary. For displaying pics its of little consequence to me, but for observing, a B&W Titled Thread makes them easy to find. So, SURE!
On underexposing; I shoot with the idea that I will process the pic. I have Adobe Lightroom and use it religiously. I shoot with what Adobe can do in mind. In other words..I don’t shoot with the idea of making a perfect shot right out of the camera. I like dodging and burning and contrast and tints and saturation..etc etc control work. Digital bends the techniques but is a lot more fun and inexpensive than film, light and chemical. So Shooting iridescence is all about bringing up the contrasts and saturation to ones liking. Iridescence close to the Sun is impossible to look at with the naked eye anyway, so the camera and processing is just as much the message as the messenger, imho. I do not feel bad or guilty about ” photoshopping” my pics. I’ve been known to ” help fix” other folk’s pics. I see it as..a Photograph..not reality. The craft is ” fixing”a Shot so that no one notices all the work you did on it to make it perfect…I guess what I am saying is…reality isn’t perfect, but a Photograph can be close. Adobe Lightroom is a great processing software package. Its not ” Adobe Photoshoppe” which is closer to a ” Printing Shop” analogy,,rather Lightroom is closer to the old school ” Photo Lab” analogy. But there are plenty of bells and whistles with Lightroom to keep one exploring for a long time. Just remember,,what are we trying to communicate with a picture..
And yes..I have a couple of years of backlog and of course everyday forward with clouds in the sky just adds to the album.
MEL
Like Finding A Sea Shell On The Beach
Hans,,,Intervalometer…thats the word..a stand alone interval timer..Canon makes a model or two .Nikon may make one,,and the accessory market has a few you can choose from. For Time Lapse movie making, they are a lot less expensive than the 5DR..Im not sure but the new Canon 80D may also have one built in..maybe not.
