Clouds--harsh critique wanted

These and these are the clouds. Please, be a brutal as you can. I want to get better. :D

They are actually not bad. More work is needed, but its a good start.

crits:

- The first problem is they are both too blurry. Now i say "too" cause as im looking at real cloud photos right now......there is a fair amount of blur/softness/blending (etc) going on. You want to keep some of that if your after realism. The blur seems to come from the blending of similar colors/gradients....which means the areas of greatest contrast should be the sharpest!! and thats what your images are lacking.

- Now about that contrast. The first image seems to have a little too much contrast. Now im thinking, if the light above the clouds is that strong....that even though the contrast would make the shadow appear darker, enough light would still pass through the cloud to make it appear brighter. Im no cloud expert or lighting expert....but i think thats a reasonable assumption. As im looking through my photo collection....it seems gray days have the darkest coulds (thats a given...not much light to begin with) and deep/tall clouds have the darkest shadows (ie there is plenty of light....yet the cloud is so deep it gets filtered before it reaches the bottom). Your clouds are fairly thin/small......so they wouldnt be that dark.

-As to the second images contrast.....it seems fine. The lighting is fairly even (compared with the first) and the clouds/smoke seems to have a thicker texture which would allow for the darker shadows. Also the lack of light (ie sunset) would allow for darker shadows too.

- About the color. The first: You could probably use some purples and grays in the mix...not just white and blue. Also those color may help bring down the contrast. The second: You could use some reds/pinks. Not only would it compliment the brown nicely......but the sun is also setting and the clouds would reflect that.

And this concludes todays class on clouds lol. Overall not bad. I would suggest working larger though.

I think Rodder said it all...

Isn't anyone else getting anoyed at people linking to deviant?
I have no problem at home with it, but here at work my connection is really slow and it takes ages to load all the deviant gifs first...
I don't know why deviant is so slow...
Would it be possible to link straight to the image instead.
And then Star could you put a target=_blank when you link your images so that it doesn't open in the same window...
Anoying when I close the image window and I'm like heeey where did my teamps go...

yea, im not commenting on this thread about the clouds but i do look around and see a bunch of peiople linking off deviant , they load slow for me too, hmmm...

Rodder: Thanks a ton! Very helpful!

3jorn: Sorry...^^; I probably should have uploaded them to a blank page. And I can definately fix the links x.x; *hadn't thought about that*

Infamous: Err, thanks.

Ok now i am commenting on the clouds, i like the second one more, maybe if you get rid of the pointy edges the smudge tool makes and try to make it from fluffy on the edges maybe? im not too good at doing it but i think it might work.....