One of the best sunsets and cloud covers I’ve ever seen happened recently. There was a large thunderstorm that passed through the area a few hours earlier. It was heavy overcast after that and I had decided to skip taking photos during sunset. At about 8:15pm which was 20 minutes before sunset, I noticed there was a yellow tint to the sky that often happens after a storm. I decided to go outside and was greeted with these beautiful and rare Mammatus clouds.

Here’s a video I shot of it a little later to show you what these looked like later in the night –

Here’s a screenshot of the cloud cover I snagged online as well. Nothing really out of the ordinary showed up on this map –

Location

Since sunset wasn’t far aware, I decided to go to Lawrence University which is nearby and would give me more time to setup the shot and get it right.

Composition

I took about 80 shots, 40 of which were from the same position. Something I learned from Elia Locardi recently was to ‘not move your tripod’ to allow you blend time together from different shots. I didn’t quite end up doing that, but about halfway through I had found the shot I wanted to stick with. I backed up and let the sidewalk act as a leading line to the chapel. This was also where the best cloud cover was and the sunset of course was over here too. I shot all my shots as -2, 0 & +2ev brackets.

Post Processing

I began post processing the photo when I got home as I wanted to send it to some social media channels I follow that night. I ended up working on the shot for about 3 hours that night and another couple hours a few days later. The second half involved touching up the grass in front of the chapel and making some tweaks I originally didn’t like about it.

Software Used

Lightroom

Photomatix

Photoshop

Techniques Used

High-Dynamic-Range

Have a Question?