Rocky Mountain National Park clouds from both sides now

[LeroyPK]

comments? improvements?

EXIF data:

Pentax K100D
f/32
ISO 200
EV +1
40 mm

[Big I]

A horizontal crop of the mountains and a bit of the trees would be great

Anyway, that would completely change the picture. What you need is a Grad. ND filter (like the Cokin P121) to make the sky darker, because right now the trees are underexposed. In this particular picture, there is also a decent amount of blue sky. Or what you can do is get a polarizing filter (like the Hoya PL-CIR). It will darken blue skies, adding contrast to the sky and make clouds really pop.

Shooting at f/7ish to f/13ish will usually yield the best quality for pictures like this one. The Pentax kit does not perform the greatest at f/32 (assuming you were using the kit lens?)

Keep shooting!

[LeroyPK]

I appreciate the comments. I think they would go away from the sense I was aiming for, however. I was trying to capture the almost endless perspective but wanted a sense of 3 layers...the foreground trees, the middle ground hazy mountains, the background sky.

Does it work given this sense or was I just simply off base and should have done as you suggest. (I didn't have a polarizing filter at the time I took this and still don't have a gradient ND. Oh, if only my wife would increase my allowance!)

[Venturi]

Hey Leroy,

I like the shot, possibly in part because I'll be heading to CO in a week but aside from that it definitely works for me and I like the portrait orientation for this shot myself. Polarizing filter would bring out some definition in the clouds, though it really isn't lacking too much there already. What does stand out for me is the trees are a tad dark - perhaps due to the attachment re-processing. If you can boost the greens in your software that might add some pop, but otherwise I'd just crop for 8x10 and call it "framed".