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Description
This is maybe not a great photo but it is interesting i think. I believe it's of what seems to be known as "Cloud Iridescence" (Wiki). Its been quite hard to look up as there appear to be many different types of similar phenomenon. Just look at the list of different optical phenomenons , and this is just the ones with their own Wikipedia pages.. there are about 60!

If i am correct this effect, which looks rather like oil sometimes does on water, is caused by lots of little ice or water droplets individually splitting the light. I read that in order for it to split into colours the cloud must be thin with equal sized droplets. This is similar to how rainbows are created but constrained to the clouds themselves. While, apparently, not that uncommon, it is often hard to notice against the bright sun.

I spotted this at Plettenberg Bay, South Africa last year and it was barely visible to the naked eye because the sun was so very bright. By wearing dark sunglasses it was more noticeable. This photo was taken at the very fastest my camera can operate, 1/4000sec, and still came out quite pale. I have not changed anything to do with colour (or even used vivid options on the camera) but i have darkened the image. I used the histogram and simply cut away a portion of the left (shadow) side, which was completely empty.

If anyone is interested i have scrapbook-ed the original and the changes i made: [link] (yes, maybe it's not very interesting, but it's here if you want to see my modifications).

As with all my images (unless stated otherwise) you can download a fullsize if wanted and you may also use this for anything non-comerical in nature (homework, art, etc.)

Description
This is maybe not a great photo but it is interesting i think. I believe it's of what seems to be known as "Cloud Iridescence" (Wiki). Its been quite hard to look up as there appear to be many different types of similar phenomenon. Just look at the list of different optical phenomenons , and this is just the ones with their own Wikipedia pages.. there are about 60!

If i am correct this effect, which looks rather like oil sometimes does on water, is caused by lots of little ice or water droplets individually splitting the light. I read that in order for it to split into colours the cloud must be thin with equal sized droplets. This is similar to how rainbows are created but constrained to the clouds themselves. While, apparently, not that uncommon, it is often hard to notice against the bright sun.

I spotted this at Plettenberg Bay, South Africa last year and it was barely visible to the naked eye because the sun was so very bright. By wearing dark sunglasses it was more noticeable. This photo was taken at the very fastest my camera can operate, 1/4000sec, and still came out quite pale. I have not changed anything to do with colour (or even used vivid options on the camera) but i have darkened the image. I used the histogram and simply cut away a portion of the left (shadow) side, which was completely empty.

If anyone is interested i have scrapbook-ed the original and the changes i made: [link] (yes, maybe it's not very interesting, but it's here if you want to see my modifications).

As with all my images (unless stated otherwise) you can download a fullsize if wanted and you may also use this for anything non-comerical in nature (homework, art, etc.)