Before the rain

[GB1]

Camped out in the desert the other day. It was down in the upper 30s that night, with a storm front coming in. Made for some interesting clouds ...

(p.s. - Yes, a little editing)

[hminx]

Nice cloud texture and high light control, those clouds look really ominous, I think if you lightened the foreground it would make the clouds relatively darker and even more forbidding.
Maybe a sizing for web thing, but there are some rather obvious sharpening halos around your foreground hill.

[ksbryan0]

I love the clouds, but think a wider perspective that anchored the mountains would give the image a more complete feel. Even pulling back enough to capture the tree that is sneaking in on the right might make the scene feel better. Also, the two patches of blue sky are too different in color to look realistic, should probably pull some saturation out of the higher patch.

[GB1]

Thanks fellows.

I am not sure on the halos ... I think they are probably artifacts from the editing I did vice compression (meant to check the original and edited versions last night, forgot). Pete that's an interesting idea on the foreground lightening. I often forget relative aspects like this, ie, the eye goes to where it's lightest, where the color is most intense, etc. Ken, thanks also for your excellent insight. I agree is looks somewhat fake, sorta like a 1950s or 1960s movie's special effects? (... I think it looks like The Ten Commandments just before Moses hiked up the hill to see the burning bush). There was actually more space around it but I didn't think it was very attractive and cropped it out. I will go back and look to see what I have.

Merry Xmas.

G