What causes the rainbow colored clouds in the middle of this image? FWIW, this was shot directly at the sun, which was right behind the statue.
For me this looks like the shadow correction from the lower-right part of the image and the statue collided with the highlights reconstruction in the clouds.
Unlikely, because the same effect is present in the unprocessed raw file.
Really? This was shot yesterday, on a very warm day, so I don’t know about ice crystals… Also, the colors were not visible to my naked eye.
Similar effects also happen with water vapor / small and uniform enough droplets:
Reminds me of first meeting a Brocken Spectre. I was quite surprised to find out that ghosts also paraglide. Sadly never caught it on camera.
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Yes, that’s iridescence. As the Wikipedia article says, “most often observed in altocumulus”, which is what I think you have there.
Atmospheric Optics is a great resource for identifying the various halos, bows, and streaks of color you occasionally see: Iridescent Clouds
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Thank you.