Luminous Landscape Forum

Equipment & Techniques => Landscape Photography Locations => Topic started by: mattyoung on December 26, 2011, 09:53:12 pm

Title: Los Angeles Sky: what kind of weather condition cause the sky to look like this?
Post by: mattyoung on December 26, 2011, 09:53:12 pm
see attached image...

thanks!
Title: Re: Los Angeles Sky: what kind of weather condition cause the sky to look like this?
Post by: Rob C on December 27, 2011, 06:26:59 am
Sunset?

Rob C
Title: Re: Los Angeles Sky: what kind of weather condition cause the sky to look like this?
Post by: michael on December 27, 2011, 09:44:53 am
Come on Rob. Sunset isn't weather. It's clouds.

Michael
Title: Re: Los Angeles Sky: what kind of weather condition cause the sky to look like this?
Post by: Steve Weldon on December 27, 2011, 10:34:00 am
What you want to hear is the sky is manipulated right?   It probably is.  Happens all the time.

In real life a sky like this 'might' appear during certain times of environmental conditions such as thick dust or smoke particles in the air.  In Thailand we see exceptionally colored skies when they're burning crops sometimes as much as 500-1000 kilometers distant.  Really bad pollution makes for really bad skies, but there is a point on either side where it will help put color in the sky.

And of course this could have been shot after dark.  It's always fun to shoot scenes from 15-90 minutes after darkness to see of atmospheric conditions will contribute to color..

The bottom line is there are ways skies like this can be shot "naturally" but you really have to work for them. 
Title: Re: Los Angeles Sky: what kind of weather condition cause the sky to look like this?
Post by: Rob C on December 27, 2011, 11:50:28 am
Come on Rob. Sunset isn't weather. It's clouds.

Michael

Dang! Foiled again!

Rob C
Title: Re: Los Angeles Sky: what kind of weather condition cause the sky to look like this?
Post by: degrub on December 27, 2011, 02:19:33 pm
Some of the most intense orange-red sunsets i ever saw were after the one of the pacific rim volcanoes blew and dumped tons of SO2 and SO3 in the upper atmosphere. The ash didn't hurt either.

Frank
Title: Re: Los Angeles Sky: what kind of weather condition cause the sky to look like this?
Post by: famalam on January 25, 2012, 07:10:15 pm
Could it be pollution?
Title: Re: Los Angeles Sky: what kind of weather condition cause the sky to look like this?
Post by: bill t. on January 25, 2012, 11:25:33 pm
LA, I was born there.  With all that ocean off in the sunset direction you often get protracted sunsets with a lot of color.  If there are clouds in a nice arrangement...oh yeah!  It's optics, or something.  Aided by SO2, SO3, CO, CO2, and countless molecules I can not spell but which can kill you.  Provided the more usual 2000 foot high marine/smog layer is not in place.

However, I do believe the Saturation Slider was invoked here, and not a little bit.  But what the heck, sometimes sunsets FEEL that way when they don't exactly LOOK that way.

That's Griffith Observatory, named after a guy who shot his wife.  You don't see that kind of naming much anymore.
Title: Re: Los Angeles Sky: what kind of weather condition cause the sky to look like this?
Post by: NikoJorj on January 26, 2012, 04:38:20 am
Clouds illuminated by sunset from behind. I won't say anything about chemtrails as I'm part of the conspiration, of course.

For the sunset color, as said, being on a mountain on a west coast helps : it means that the sun rays pass through more of the atmosphere at sunset. Works equally well for the western extremity of a mountain range above a plain (the case here in Grenoble) or for sunrise on an east coast eg.
Title: Re: Los Angeles Sky: what kind of weather condition cause the sky to look like this?
Post by: Wolfman on January 26, 2012, 03:42:40 pm
LA, I was born there.  With all that ocean off in the sunset direction you often get protracted sunsets with a lot of color.  If there are clouds in a nice arrangement...oh yeah!  It's optics, or something.  Aided by SO2, SO3, CO, CO2, and countless molecules I can not spell but which can kill you.  Provided the more usual 2000 foot high marine/smog layer is not in place.

However, I do believe the Saturation Slider was invoked here, and not a little bit.  But what the heck, sometimes sunsets FEEL that way when they don't exactly LOOK that way.

That's Griffith Observatory, named after a guy who shot his wife.  You don't see that kind of naming much anymore.




I shot at the beach on the same day and the saturation slider was not invoked on this image. Some clarity, tone curve and lens correction.... it was a special sky for sure.
(http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7016/6767305189_2c92fe9c74_z.jpg)



Title: Re: Los Angeles Sky: what kind of weather condition cause the sky to look like this?
Post by: bill t. on January 26, 2012, 04:43:46 pm
Come on you guys, everybody knows that steep Curves in "Normal" Blending Mode is little more than the Saturation Slider in drag!  Switch it over to "Luminosity" mode and see where that puts those sunsets!

But both are nice pictures that serve the moment, I'm not objecting.  That's roughly the view I used to have outside my old $80/month Venice Beach apartment.