Storm over Gablians

Storm over Gablians, originally uploaded by Steve Loos.

This photo was taken last week during one of our many storms.  I walked up the hill behind my home and shot this image looking east towards a spectacular thunderstorm.  The shafts of rain and sun under the cloud were mesmerizing, and I’d hoped the photo did the view honor.

I did not use a grad filter and often do not on these storms as I like the dark, ominous feeling under the clouds.  If I can capture event a little detail beneath the cloud without over exposing the cloud tops I usually don’t use a grad filter.  In this image the sun was off my right shoulder and much of the rain beneath the cloud was in sunlight ~ a lucky combination that allowed the camera to capture detail in shadows and rain beneath the cloud without over exposing the white tops of the storm.

This image was shot in raw and use Adobe Camera Raw to post process for color and contrast; no HDR or double process was used.  Mid-tone contrast was enhanced by balancing fill, blacks, brightness and exposure in ACR; a combination of levels and curves can achieve similar results in JPG process in Photoshop (most process software can adjust levels and curves, or look for shadow/midtone/highlight adjustments.)  Try adjusting mid tones before working on shadows and highlights and pay attention to clipping (blowing out highlights and driving shadows to pure black.) 

Then the photo was loaded into Nik Software Silver Efex; a great program for converting photos to black and white.  I played with various settings, and ended up enhancing contrast and adding the “selenia” overlay which gave the image the blue / metallic feel.