Lightning! very nice nice nice

[picturetaker1239]

um ya a while back before it started to get cold.

[J-Dogg Productions]

wow nice shot i love the color of the sky just curious how do you even go about takin a shot like this since lightning is so fast

[jbaldocchi]

I like the lightning but might blow up or crop the image tighter on the action and eliminate the left side up to the grain silow.

Jim B.

[GB1]

Wow, great capture. I love the purple color here too. The only thing I wish is that it had a more interesting silhouette around the lightning (where's the Parthenon when you need it).

GB

[gahspidy]

The color is appealing. I think cropping some of the foreground off the bottom, and some of the left side frame would help improve on this.

[Coastal Flyer]

Spectacular shot. I am envious. I have been attempting to capture lightening for many years and just can't get it right. I agree with other comments, a bit of cropping and you have a real gem.

Very nice work.

CF

[Chunk]

I'm not sure I agree with the cropping suggestions. The dark gives a balance to the light and the negative space supports the main subject well, I think. A small amount off the bottom and left might be OK.

I like that parts of the foreground fields caught the light, also adding some balance to the scene.

[readingr]

We hardly get lightning like this - excellent photo - looks ok to me as is.

Roger

[Rocket_Scientist]

This is a very nice picture, and I especially like the bucolic setting--it would be wasted on the Parthenon. I also agree that the only cropping, if any, should be limited to a small amount at the bottom, and even lees on the left. I think it is very effective the way the fence fades into complete darkness on the left, and, overall, the darkness suggests you would see nothing if it were not for the lightning. It is fortunate there is no utility light to ruin the effect. This is how it is in the country at night--a cloudy night--there is just darkness. Beautiful shot.

[picturetaker1239]

yeah lemme just crop it out then repost it. i think that you guys are right about the black at the bottom seems kind of pointless. i just want to make sure that the effect of the reflection from the puddles dont get under embelished because i really like the texture that it gives you to the ground.

[picturetaker1239]

ok i took a bit off the left side and a bit off the bottom... the quality might have dropped. that explained the noise on the other foto because i have dial up i hve to shrink the files quite a bit even if it means reducing the quality resulting in noise...

[ERdept]

Sorry, don't mean to be pushy, but just how did you get that shot since lightining has those two great qualities of being spontaneous, and so very quick?

Enquiring minds want to know.

Thanks,

cliff

[gahspidy]

good job on the crop. I think it is improved.

[picturetaker1239]

well... for those of you that are new to photography I guess. you need to have a long shutter speed or a bulb setting to capture lightning. My camera in parrticular is kinda crappy for lightning shots because the ccd is really noisy at low light. it has a noise reduction feature that pretty much takes away the noise after some time.

Anyways I shot this with a higher aperature something around f8-f11 and a 30 second shutter speed. i didnt shoot it bulb becuase i dont have a remote or anything so i didnt want to shake the camera. also the 2 second self timer helps.

the lightning will pretty much light up itself once a good strike is in the frame.

with regards to white balance i use the outdoor preset. because it gives nice vivid colour.

for more tips and things check out the fireworks tutorial workshop thing on photography review since its pretty much the same concept at least thats what i thought.

http://www.photographyreview.com/fir...oguidecrx.aspx

good luck.

[ERdept]

Thank you. Sometimes you (I) think that I know how to do things and have an idea of how to do things. It's just helpful to know that others are thinking the same thing. Kinda confirms that I'm on the right path.

cliff