Author Topic: Tornadic Cloud, Eh!  (Read 3989 times)

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Offline SlowModem

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Tornadic Cloud, Eh!
« on: August 05, 2011, 11:04:33 PM »
I saw this picture on Yahoo today and thought I'd share it with y'all.  I've included some of the story.

Quote
Pat Kavanagh of Canada Captures Photo Of A Cloud Trying To Form A Tornado

Pat Kavanagh took a photo of a cloud trying to develop into a full blown tornado from the roof of his house in Taber in Alberta, Canada last month, several international news sites reported on Thursday, August 4, 2011.

The photo was taken on July 17, 2011. It was said to be a rare sighting as tornadoes are very unusual in Taber.

Daily Mail quoted Kavanagh as saying:

    It was a nice evening and the sun was shining when I suddenly heard claps of thunder, which was strange.

    My wife went to look out the front door and saw the clouds blowing up from the south.

    I took one look and headed back into the house to get my camera.

    We watched the storm for a few minutes when I noticed that the cloud was starting to spin.

    I got my ladder and climbed up on my roof to get a better view.

    It never got the momentum to create a tornado, but it did look like it was going to happen before out eyes.

    We watched for 45 minutes as it slowly moved back into cloud formation.
Greg Whitehead
Ten Mile, TN USA

Offline SoMDWx

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Re: Tornadic Cloud, Eh!
« Reply #1 on: August 05, 2011, 11:15:20 PM »
Sorry, looks fake... Plus the story doesn't coincide with the timimg of the event and from where the sun is shining....

Offline Downlinerz2

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Re: Tornadic Cloud, Eh!
« Reply #2 on: August 05, 2011, 11:55:17 PM »
    It does have a hint of "unreality" about it.  It would be one of the greatest pics ever if it was real  but I don't think so.

Offline SlowModem

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Re: Tornadic Cloud, Eh!
« Reply #3 on: August 06, 2011, 12:18:57 AM »
    It does have a hint of "unreality" about it.  It would be one of the greatest pics ever if it was real  but I don't think so.

On Yahoo, it's photo #2 in the slideshow:

http://news.yahoo.com/photos/snapshots-week-of-june-3-1307133161-slideshow/#crsl=

I can't say if it's real or not.  However, here's the text for the Yahoo photo (I added the bold for emphasis):

Quote
This is the terrifying moment a cloud threatened to develop into a full blown TORNADO over a row of family homes. Brave snapper Pat Kavanagh took this shot of an explosive black storm from the roof of his house in Taber, Canada last month. Expecting the sunny weather to take a turn for the worse he watched intently as the billows started spinning into a furious funnel. This pic was created by stitching together multiple photographs in a vertical panorama. (Photo: PAT KAVANAGH / CATERS NEWS)
Greg Whitehead
Ten Mile, TN USA

Offline Downlinerz2

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Re: Tornadic Cloud, Eh!
« Reply #4 on: August 06, 2011, 12:32:36 AM »
   I don't know if it is fake or not either.  As I said before if it's real it is a fantastic picture.  It struck me as too good but who knows with the cameras around today.
It would not be the first time I thought a fake was true or vice versa! :oops: ](*,) :grin:

Offline DanS

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Re: Tornadic Cloud, Eh!
« Reply #5 on: August 06, 2011, 05:44:30 AM »
Sorry, looks fake... Plus the story doesn't coincide with the timimg of the event and from where the sun is shining....

I am along with Jim's statement of the timing of events. If it's evening, as the story says, then the shot is looking northerly (unless the picture is inverted). If the story said it was morning or the storm was blowing down from the north then that would give it a little more weight.
« Last Edit: August 07, 2011, 01:38:26 AM by DanS »

Offline mackbig

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Re: Tornadic Cloud, Eh!
« Reply #6 on: August 06, 2011, 08:38:18 AM »
Enhanced a bit, but I would not jump to fake.  Its not like the guy snapped a pic with his point and shoot.  He appears to be a very accomplished photographer, with some fancy equipment.  He admits to the photoshop touchup in the articles.

Here's his flikr page.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/the_kav/

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Offline Randall Kayfes

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Re: Tornadic Cloud, Eh!
« Reply #7 on: August 06, 2011, 12:35:32 PM »
It's called HDR - High Dynamic Range - You take several photos of different exposures all else remaining the same.  You then use software to paste only the mid-exposure areas form each photo into one photo that more accurately reflects the human experience, as the human eye can easily see highly more dynamic range than the best camera.

As with anything you, can over do it, however beauty is in the eye of the beholder.  Though this gentleman goes a little over on density then I would, this photo could be entirely accurate with nothing fake about it.  The rest of his photos on flickr are all HDR as well again a little over dense but not far off from my tastes and I believe him to be a very good photographer.  Like real estate location, location, in photography composition, composition and his composition seems to be OK.

HDR is changing the face of photography and it will take a little time for tastes to adjust to it's capability - google HDR.



Offline SoMDWx

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Re: Tornadic Cloud, Eh!
« Reply #8 on: August 06, 2011, 01:16:40 PM »
This whole thing gets into what is truly art. If you like photoshopping every picture you take then that's fine as long as the viewer is advised to that fact. When I see weather pictures like this, I start wondering the reasoning behind why it was photoshopped at all. The camera takes what is seen at that moment. I would leave it as such... Just sayin'

Jim

Offline Downlinerz2

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Re: Tornadic Cloud, Eh!
« Reply #9 on: August 06, 2011, 04:25:42 PM »
This whole thing gets into what is truly art. If you like photoshopping every picture you take then that's fine as long as the viewer is advised to that fact. When I see weather pictures like this, I start wondering the reasoning behind why it was photoshopped at all. The camera takes what is seen at that moment. I would leave it as such... Just sayin'
Jim
=D> =D>  Agreed!

Offline ocala

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Re: Tornadic Cloud, Eh!
« Reply #10 on: August 06, 2011, 04:42:34 PM »
It's called HDR - High Dynamic Range - You take several photos of different exposures all else remaining the same.  You then use software to paste only the mid-exposure areas form each photo into one photo that more accurately reflects the human experience, as the human eye can easily see highly more dynamic range than the best camera.

As with anything you, can over do it, however beauty is in the eye of the beholder.  Though this gentleman goes a little over on density then I would, this photo could be entirely accurate with nothing fake about it.  The rest of his photos on flickr are all HDR as well again a little over dense but not far off from my tastes and I believe him to be a very good photographer.  Like real estate location, location, in photography composition, composition and his composition seems to be OK.

HDR is changing the face of photography and it will take a little time for tastes to adjust to it's capability - google HDR.
Definitely HDR. If you look through some of the photos on Wundergrounds website you will see several of these. While they do look great it's not a true representation of the actual image. 
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Offline IMADreamer

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Re: Tornadic Cloud, Eh!
« Reply #11 on: August 06, 2011, 06:13:58 PM »
This whole thing gets into what is truly art. If you like photoshopping every picture you take then that's fine as long as the viewer is advised to that fact. When I see weather pictures like this, I start wondering the reasoning behind why it was photoshopped at all. The camera takes what is seen at that moment. I would leave it as such... Just sayin'

Jim

Full disclosure, I shoot almost all of my weather photography in HDR these days. 

With that said it's clearly "over cooked" making it look unreal.  HDR is truly amazing for weather photography though because you can better capture what the eye sees which isn't possible with the camera and one exposure because thunderstorms offer such a high dynamic range you just won't get the details.  To me it's much more important to capture the true structure of the storm rather then trying to be some kind of old school photographer just shooting single exposures.  For the picture in question to do this in a single exposure he would have had to chose where he what he would have wanted to see in it then set his exposure from there.  Too dark and he only gets the tops, too light and the tops blow and and he just gets the bottom of the tower, however with HDR he can get it all.

Of course this falls into the category of to each their own but like it or not HDR is here to stay.

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Offline mackbig

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Re: Tornadic Cloud, Eh!
« Reply #12 on: August 06, 2011, 09:41:15 PM »
Kind of like those shuttle launch images....
http://www.wxforum.net/index.php?topic=12581.msg122220#msg122220

Apparently Ansel Adams did a version of HDR in the dark room, but that went away with colour photography. (thanks wiki).  So even the greats played with photoshop, before photoshop was invented.  :lol:

I know it nearly impossible to take weather pics or sunset pics that show what the human eye sees.   I guess HDR levels the playing field a bit.  But like with anything used in moderation is best.  I might check out the bracketing feature on my camera to see if I can enhance some of the harder to get shots.

Andrew

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Offline Randall Kayfes

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Re: Tornadic Cloud, Eh!
« Reply #13 on: August 06, 2011, 10:36:50 PM »
"I start wondering the reasoning behind why it was photoshopped at all. The camera takes what is seen at that moment. I would leave it as such... Just sayin'"

Not necessarily true.  In normal photography you have to compromise by either getting detail in the shadows by blowing out the bright clouds or get the detail in the clouds which leaves the foreground muddy dark.

I too did not initially like HDR, but once you do HDR via bracketing photography it is hard to go back.  Clouds that are normally blown out and foregrounds that are pitch black all goes away with HDR...
« Last Edit: August 06, 2011, 10:45:18 PM by kaymann »



Offline Downlinerz2

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Re: Tornadic Cloud, Eh!
« Reply #14 on: August 07, 2011, 01:01:35 AM »
   Tinkering with pics is nothing new! Back in the 80's when I started in astrophotography I learned dark-room tricks like shading, burning, masking, fogging and other ways to improve the final result.   It was impossible to get a picture of a galaxy that has a brighter center and faint outer regions without overexposing the bright center.  You would have to use different methods in the darkroom to balance the brightness and to make the fainter regions more visible.  After having to guide the telescope for 90 minutes to get a picture you wanted to do whatever you could do to make it look it's absolute best, but still be an accurate representation of what you might see in the telescope if your eyes could add up the photons like film could.

Offline IMADreamer

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Re: Tornadic Cloud, Eh!
« Reply #15 on: August 07, 2011, 02:09:41 AM »
All the photography greats had tricks they used in post processing, they were just as good in the dark room as they were with the camera.  So really not much has changed but maybe the accessibility the post processing techniques with things like photoshop.
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