Fireworks

Wow, very beautiful and impressive. Not sure how I feel about it being a composite though to get all those bolts..

Beautiful composite, Paolo! Is it possible to make this same scene out of 1 exposure and with only 1 bolt? That would be equally if not more impressive to me. Again, wonderful scene here.

Very powerful image, I like it very much.

Dramatic, intense and beautiful. I don't think I like the vignetting though. . . the mood is already gloomy enough.

- Luke

SICK!!!! That is awesome. I don't care if it is a composite, as long as you explain that it is. Very powerful, and impressive stuff.

Chris

Holy cow, that's impressive! Superb composition and technique.

Guy

Hello Paolo,
Very nice, seamless composite. I moved mine to "photo art" upon request and that was OK. PS technique is excellent. I have no problem where it's placed.
Neil

Serene meets explosive - what a light show Paolo, and you pulled it off marvelously.

David M. Cobb

Wow! What a high impact image Paolo.

Very surreal scene, Paolo! Great job with the technique!

Spectacular! Can't find the words. Nice work Paolo.

very impressive Paolo. Congrats!

Simply gorgeous Paolo.
John

Very impressive and well done photo. The composite is seamless. Well done.

Impressive, very powerfull and strong image, Paolo. Cheers

THIS IS A WINNER...

A very powerful shot. Good to see you posting again!

Paolo,

Very impressive indeed. Almost unbelievable!

Composite is no different really than doing multiple exposures with film so I don't see anything wrong with it. Very effective image.

Impressive result though I'd be more impressed if the bolts had happened all at one time rather than composited.

Beautiful!!

Fantastic colors and capture!

It's always interesting watching people get into the composite vs single exposure. As I always say you should be open to either one, I feel. If you can step the fine art photo up another level with an exposure blend then go for it. It's not always easy to make it look great and sure did a super job here Paolo!!

Awesome!!! Very dramatic.

Wow - This is such a wonderful image Paolo. The sky color and the majesty of the clouds is very impressive.

Great job Paolo.

Ian

The turmoil in the clouds and the various unusual colors are just as "electric" as the bolts of lightning, and what a perfect spot for a little island. I don't think the composition would have come together as well without it. Fabulous photo.

Really cool image - great job! Just the water with the rock and those incredible clouds are a pretty good image, the lightning puts it over the top.

Spectacular drama and incredible mood.

Hey, thank you all for the great commentary, pales! Honestly, I wasn't totally sure about this one, it's quite an experiment, so I'm just happy that it actually met the liking of so many, thanks!

About the composite, well, we might consider that if I had kept the shutter open for 75", I would have recorded exactly the same number of bolts on a single exposure. This is what I actually did (with a 3 stop ND filter on the lens), but unfortunately with 75" of exposure the clouds were badly blurred, and that's the reason why I opted for taking a number of faster exposures to be combined together. I noticed that the lightnings had quite a regular pace - more or less one every 10" - so I simply realized that by keeping the shutter open for 15", I would have easily recorded at least one bolt on each exposure. I did this for about 12 times, and then I chose the best 5 images to be stacked together. With this "trick", I've been able to produce an image with more or less the same number of bolts as the one exposed by 75", but with the clouds far less blurred.

By the way, I've just made a black and white conversion of this, and I thought I would post it here for comparison. How do you like it?

Thanks again fellows for commenting on this, it's always a pleasure to read your thoughts and advices.
Paolo

Stunning image. I prefer the color version. Like someone else commented, I think I'd prefer this image with just one bolt, as a magical instantaneous capture of an actual event, as opposed to a composite which looks like "photo[shop] art," but either way its fabulous.

Whoa.

stunning image, Paolo. You nailed the technique. I like them both, but the color is so good, I prefer it slightly. Great vision to figure this technique out quickly.

I wondered where you had gone, Paolo. I figured you were up to something. This is absolutely stunning! I am really impressed.

All I can saw Paolo is that I'm shaking my head in awe. This is spectacular. The glow in the clouds from the lightening is amazing and you couldn't have asked for a better comp with that island and the sea. Phenomenal work. Your use of compositing worked flawlessly. The color image is by far the better of the two; that color is awesome.

This is stunning, Paolo! Talk about mood and drama.

Ed

Just went back and saw the b&w--wow!!! I think I lean towards the color version just a bit but both are powerful enough to knock anyone's socks off.

Very impressive. Even without the lightening, this would be a stellar image.

Amazing shot...I prefer the color one. Really...superb!

One capture five captures, however many captures, EXCELLENT. The dramatic presentation, SWEET. My hat's off to you. Masterfully done. Just MHO and 2 cents worth.

Wow Paolo
This work is awesome, the lightning is stunning even the clouds :)

Stunning! My vote goes for the black and white.

Simply spectacular!
One of the rare instances where the color and the b&w have equal impact.
A prize winner for sure....molto magnifico, Paolo!!

Didn't even notice the lightning till I opened this up Paolo, this would be great even without it.
After seeing the B&W, I think I might like that version even better! Great post production work on this one!

This is definitely one of those WOW! images. I love the sense of depth in the image. My only nit would be that some of the clouds, like those at the very top middle of the image, and the grey ones below them have this softness that I like because it shows the movement of the storm, but then the lower clouds just above the lightning seem over-sharpened to my eye. Wonderful image!

I like the B&W as well, but not as much as the color, mostly because of the wonderful colors in the clouds.

I also don't see a problem with the composite since you noted that was how the image was created

You hit the sweetspot mate, very dramatic indeed!

Absolutely impressive Paolo. I like the bw version and I think it works well, but I prefer the color. I like that color contrast here quite a bit.

WOW! An incredible shot in my book. Doesn't matter to me that it's a composite -- it's impressive no matter how it was made.

Amazing scene. Fantastic work on making this all work together so well.

Nice shot with some exceptionall cloud formation.The angle over the sea also adds to the drama.

This is just nuts, Paolo--one of your best!

Very well done, Paolo. You are fleeing to the seaside, now that mountains are covered in snow and colorful leaves - interesting.
I prefer the color version as the typical thunderstorm tones there enhance the mood even more.

Hi Paolo. Just amazing. A really nice picture. Cant find the proper words to express all my feelings about it. Congratulations to a "shot of the month".

much prefer the colour rendition ... and fabulously creative to put together a composite ... well done.

This is very impressive. The lonely outcrop "floating" in the sea adds a lot of drama. Very good image Paolo!

Paolo, What a terrific image you have here, I love everything about it. As I was scolling down to add my comment the top portion (bright sky above the clouds) was cut off and I started to think about how the image would look as a panoramic.

Gorgeous dark rich tones! I'm in the single bolt camp as well if it's possible. Great work!

Jose

Superb in all senses!! Great job Paolo!

Yeah. I wanted to be number 60.

great shot man. long time not talking to you.

gio

W W fantastic!

David

Pure brilliance. The cloud texture is magic.

The colour for me.

Spectacular and surrealistic! Beautiful work.

Words can't describe ...

Thank you all again for the great comments and appreciation, your feedback is as always unvaluable!

Paolo

Wow, this is absolutely fabulous. I'm speechless.

- Dan.

Could be thrown into the photo-art section as well, regardless it earns a "holy hell" for its level of visual impact.

Hi Paolo,

I'm thunderstruck by this image . Brilliantly executed. As usual, there's debate about whether this is a "real" image, or a "photo art" image. IMHO, that's a completely arbitrary divide. After all, can we really claim to be capturing "what we saw"? We don't see in B/W, we see in color. Does that mean B/W images are all photo art? We see in 3-d, so all photos of any kind are "photo art", since they are 2-d. Heck, if we use a wide angle lens, we completely distort all angular/spatial relations, so no wide angle shots either. IMO, photographers should stop kidding themselves that they are "only capturing what they saw". We convey what we experienced! You experienced several bolts, and that's what you are conveying. It works fine for that. What can be called "photo art" seems weird to me. Isn't all photography "art"? Sorry for the rant

wow !!

this is great

awesome light indeed

all the best

Hamed

A really great shot. I prefer the colour version.

Congratulations

daniel

NO WAY!!! About as killer as an image gets! Stunning.

Mark

YES! Freaking beautiful Paolo!