This photo, taken from Twin Lakes in Gunbarrel, CO, was shot facing approximately south on a Canon EOS 6D Mark II using an EF 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM lens at a focal length of 50mm, f/4.5, ISO 100, and three shutter speeds (the image is an HDR composite) : 1/4000, 1/1000, and 1/250. These settings correspond to a +/- 2 stops HDR setup. The photo was taken at about 1:43 pm on Friday, November 22nd, 2024. The photography altitude is about 5000 feet above sea level, so the Skew-T diagram for that day indicates clouds around the 5000-8000 feet AGL point. This suggests that the clouds, which covered a large section of the sky, are either stratocumulus or altocumulus/altostratus clouds. No lighting was observed, nor was there much or any precipitation, suggesting the cloud was not a cumulonimbus or nimbostratus cloud.

As mentioned before, the image is a composite of three images taken at different exposures. The composite image was created in Lightroom Classic. Honestly the HDR treatment doesn’t do a lot for this image, but I had the bracketed photos so I put them together. The final image is adjusted for contrast via the point curve as well as the tone contrast slider; exposure is slightly increased; highlights and blacks are turned down while shadows and whites are boosted some; saturation and vibrance are turned up a little. The effect of all this is largely to draw out the depth of the cloud formation, as well as to give it more varied color. The original image was fairly gray and muted.