The original version of this image was a somewhat uninspiring picture, while the reworked version is an attempt to see how far I could push the levels and curves adjustments in Photoshop without totally trashing the final result. And, on reflection, I think I probably overdid it somewhat. If this camera could take RAW images I think I might have got away with it but such a gross manipulation on a jpeg has lead to the introduction of quite a bit of unwanted distortion, particularly on the left of the image (and bottom right) on the border between the clouds and the very dark areas of the image.

That said, I do think the image is quite evocative, but I would have preferred the net result to have been a little more subtle. For future images (of this sort) I’m going to try introducing some optical filtering to darken down the sky prior to processing the image as this will obviously result in less need for such drastic post-processing. It will also mean, though I’m not sure how important this is, that the final result will be ‘nearer’ to the original than it otherwise would have been.

And, in case you’re wondering, the title of this image is the capture date in binary (in the format 20803) – I was thinking about ADSL internet connections (through phone lines) when I titled it.