Thanks.
I still wasn't too happy so I put up the 'Promise of Rain' Clouds...
Hiya ecniv,
Firstly, just an observation .... most of us doing the photo52 are on a first name basis now, after all we have been at this for a few weeks now ... and I like to call people by their names rather than username. I have always been intrigued and somewhat confused by your username, but today it 'dawned' on me ... are you by any chance called 'vince'? OMG I feel like a character out of Rumpelstiltskin asking that question ... but heyho in some way it adds to the theme, as in the storey the dwarf returned to claim his payment: "Now give me what you
promised"

Sorry .... a bit off topic but I had to ask
Right, down to business .... and your second shot for 'promise' .... Clouds .... a subject very close to my heart as I absolutely love looking up at the sky and taking photos of these glorious formations, so .....
I hope you don't mind .... but I have done an edit of your photo to show what my ideas/thoughts are about the image (which I will explain below):
[/url]
_DSC7033_hdr_sml-1 by
crystal_singer (drodd), on Flickr[/IMG]
I like the idea you had associated with the promise of rain, however the angle at which you have taken the shot, for me, doesn't work. Especially with the out of focus tree on the left, the white object just off centre and the roof ??? jutting out on the right, plus the trees on the horizon all slanting look very 'unnatural'.
I think clouds speak very much for themselves, and as a subject can convey a message without any foreground definition, hence why I straightened and cropped the image (for this I took the photo into Lightroom 3 .... not an application I use very often, but it does come in handy for such movement of a photo to get the right crop and straighten of an image). I suspect there is other software available to do same, but I don't have them, so made do with what I have.
Once I had the part of the photo that I wanted to work with, I took it into Picnik (where I feel comfortable) and with a few minor tweeks of exposure, colour and sharpness I then finished it with the border.
There are times where I take a photo .... and as much as I try to get the composition right in camera, it is not always possible. I don't know what lens you used to take this shot, but from my experience I find that my 18-55 lens doesn't get as close as I would like and so have to take wider shots and then crop ..... and I don't think there is anything wrong with that, especially if one can get the focus on the main point, which I think you have captured here.
Any cloud shots are always going to get my undivided attention, so I hope you don't mind me taking up so much space on your thread with this post. Your photo has proved a nice little challenge and learning experience for me too

Thanks
BTW if you would like to see some of the cloud shots I have taken you can find them here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/crystal_singer/sets/72157624152216489/
Cheers
Dawn
