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September 01, 2006

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I sure wished I could have been able to capture this event with time lapse. Driving down the highway one day I pulled over and watched as these cirrus clouds on top of this cumulus formation drifted over the edge and down the side like a waterfall. Apparently the lighter cirrus clouds had turned to ice crystals and became heavier and started dropping. While at the same time, the cumulus clouds, building up and rising towards the stratosphere were pushing upwards through the cirrus clouds. 
It was fascinating to me a that two bodies of water, both in gas form, could react so differently in the same place.

Digital photography tip: "Hey where's my rainbow?"

So many times in the past I have taken pictures of a beautiful rainbow and various other forms of spectral light in the sky and wondered why it didn't show up quite the same way as what I saw with my own eyes. Or why it never comes out quite as brilliant as that amazing shot in National Geographic. 

Well, there are actually several major contributing factors that can cause this problem.
One is the fact that a rainbow is actually just the light from the sun, reflected off of the water droplets in the sky from different angles. When we look at it with our own eyes, we are looking at the view in three-dimensions, giving us a slight bit more angle of the spectral light. The camera is only taking a one-dimensional view and loses some of this extra light that we see.
Another problem is that many people, when taking photos of rainbows tend to cheat, and what you see in the photo may actually be quite a bit enhanced form the original image. Enhancing the contrast and intensity of colors is easily done and can help to bring out a rainbow quite a bit.
But another factor is that the camera itself might be trying to fade the colors out of the image. Many cameras have different layers of filtration within the lenses, and also sometimes within the internal electronic automatic features of the camera itself. In many cases the camera actually tries to filter out what it perceives as errors and different lighting problems, such as lens flare and various forms of glare that can ruin an ordinary photo. In trying to make a camera more user friendly and easier for a wider audience of amateur photographers, with our own advancements in technology, we literally shot ourselves in the foot. (and didn't get a good picture of it)

So one way around this problem might be to add a filter to your camera. Many cameras have the option to attach a filter to the front of the lens itself. Some filters are used like sunglasses, to try to dim extremely bright light, or to block out ultraviolet light, or even add specific colors. Where others, like a polarizing filter is used to eliminate reflections from various surfaces. With some adjustments it can actually add various saturations of color back to the image, like a rainbow, where the existing lens might try to remove it.

 But, from a private investigator's angle, it can also be quite useful to eliminate glare and allow full, unobstructed view into the windows of vehicles. 
But don't worry, it can't see through clothing.
 I got another filter for that.

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