An amazing image! To have trees, water, thunder cloud and bright stars all so crisp and clear in one image is striking indeed. What is the source of the red light in the far left just below the clouds?
Ed, this is simply a cool shot, thanks for sharing it and the exposure details.
Posted by Barry Southon on July 14, 2009 at 10:16 AM
Ed
What a nice capture well seen.
Posted by Wayne Rhodus on July 14, 2009 at 10:37 AM
I don't recall having ever seen this combination of elements in one image Ed. Very interesting shot. Why the 1600 & 30 seconds? The noise is the only downside in this lovely image.
Daniel, those lights on the left are from radio towers on the hills.
Wayne, ISO 1600 and 30 seconds seemed to be the best combination to capture enough light to illuminate the trees. Lower ISO was too dark and longer than 30 seconds would blow out the lightning as it accumulated.
I always love thunderstorm clouds. Lightning is just a plus. First thought was the color. You nailed it. Most people end up with to much blue. In town, you have to worry about street light and the color they produce.
Second, I have much better luck with crisper clouds at 8 to 10 seconds and ISO400 and usually F4 to F8. I keep cranking them out. Not a second goes by that is not recorded. You may end up with hundreds of exposures and only a few strikes. Lightning strikes are very bright and usually hang around the F8 range. Then fix the lightning in PS.
Kelvin degrees? What "mm" lense? I tried my fisheye once and the strikes were too small. My 18-200@18 seems to be the way to go for me.
It only gets better with experience. You have a great location to shoot from. I'm jealous!
Mike, Thanks for the information and feedback. Focal length is 55mm and color around 4000k. This spot is within 5 minutes of my home which is a real bonus.
great job, I'm jealous of your easy access to this location :), this is one of my favorite styles of photography and I've never captured all the elements you did
I guess there's something about the light here that I'm just not connecting with, Ed. While I think there is some beautiful color and interest in the scene, my mind keeps resisting the illuminated bottom half of the image while at the same time trying to process the dark blue sky and numerous stars in the top half...maybe just a bit too unnatural or Disney-like for me. I'm just not used to seeing illuminated landscape and stars in the same image. But I'm obviously in the minority on this one, so you probably shouldn't pay much attention to my feeble old one-track mind...
I know what you mean Bill. This is a unique image which had several factors combining for the effect:
1. The storm was far enough away to not take up the whole sky allowing a wide view which included the black sky.
2. The lightning was happening in the lower portion of the storm basically underneath the anvil cloud.
3. I guess the storm was sucking the moisture out of the air because the sky which had been hazy all day was crystal clear between my location and the storm.
4. The storm was far enough away to capture detail of the lake and the stars but close enough to block most of the light from Eureka Springs.
5. Without the 30 second exposure the top half would have been totally black with no stars. At sixty seconds the cloud was blown at 15 seconds the stars were not visible.
6. My wife was gracious enough after working 10 or 12 hours to ride with me up to this spot and wait 30 minutes while I captured it.
This is really interesting... I'm sure you were very surprised to see the results. Very clever settings consider what you're trying to capture. As far as the noise goes, you happen you to be using the best DSLR ever made "for handling high ISO".
Aaron, you are exactly right and that is why I switched from Canon to Nikon early last year. That said the canon 5d mkII does a really good job on ISO, especially for 21MP.
Even with a 30 second exposure the noise at ISO 1600 can be eliminated with Noise Ninja while retaining most of the detail. This shot would not have been possible just a few years ago.
Discussion
24 repliesD3, f/4, ISO 1600, 30 seconds.
If anyone else has some images why don't you post them here.
What a nice capture well seen.
Well done, thanks for sharing!
Wayne, ISO 1600 and 30 seconds seemed to be the best combination to capture enough light to illuminate the trees. Lower ISO was too dark and longer than 30 seconds would blow out the lightning as it accumulated.
Second, I have much better luck with crisper clouds at 8 to 10 seconds and ISO400 and usually F4 to F8. I keep cranking them out. Not a second goes by that is not recorded. You may end up with hundreds of exposures and only a few strikes. Lightning strikes are very bright and usually hang around the F8 range. Then fix the lightning in PS.
Kelvin degrees? What "mm" lense? I tried my fisheye once and the strikes were too small. My 18-200@18 seems to be the way to go for me.
It only gets better with experience. You have a great location to shoot from. I'm jealous!
1. The storm was far enough away to not take up the whole sky allowing a wide view which included the black sky.
2. The lightning was happening in the lower portion of the storm basically underneath the anvil cloud.
3. I guess the storm was sucking the moisture out of the air because the sky which had been hazy all day was crystal clear between my location and the storm.
4. The storm was far enough away to capture detail of the lake and the stars but close enough to block most of the light from Eureka Springs.
5. Without the 30 second exposure the top half would have been totally black with no stars. At sixty seconds the cloud was blown at 15 seconds the stars were not visible.
6. My wife was gracious enough after working 10 or 12 hours to ride with me up to this spot and wait 30 minutes while I captured it.
I'm not usually this lucky.
That would be the lightning bolt which was about the only thing missing from my picture.
Even with a 30 second exposure the noise at ISO 1600 can be eliminated with Noise Ninja while retaining most of the detail. This shot would not have been possible just a few years ago.