Posted by Mike Hall on September 6, 2009 at 11:10 PM
Karla and I were out watching the sunset when this storm rose up over the Arkansas River near Conway. I got three usable strikes and turned the camera over to her and it would be her luck, the ligthning came to a complete stop. She only got some sunset pics from earlier. She had her fun with lightning a few weeks ago and tonight was my turn I guess.
Three shot blend. ISO 200, 8 second burst at F5.6 with a borrowed Nikon d90 (ours is getting a new miror)
Posted by Tom Kennon on September 7, 2009 at 12:04 AM
Nice shot, looks like Cadron Settlement. Be careful with that d90 you might just like it.
Posted by Gale Rainwater on September 7, 2009 at 8:13 AM
Wow Mike a great shot. One of the best I've seen on our forum of local lightning. I like the reflection also.
Posted by Mike Hall on September 7, 2009 at 9:52 AM
Every since Ed got the lightning over Beaverfork, I've been wanting a reflection shot. In my area there are three bodies of water. Karla and I were hoping for a good sunset thru the cyprus trees on Lake Conway, but when they didn't pan out we switched to the Ar River at Cadron Settlement park overlook. Managed to get the three shots and atter about five minutes the storm fizzled. But, we will be back next time it comes from that direction! There is some noise in the posted picture and Karla ran it thru "noise ninja" and it cleaned up very well. Other that, I wished the river had been a little smoother so the reflection would have been better. Maybe next time.
I've been playing with the kelvins and after seeing Ed's shot a while back, I'm settled in on 4800. It make the lighting a little warm, but the clouds don't seem as blue.
Here is the better single image of the afternoon. Cropped and dodged a bit.
Posted by Mike Hall on September 7, 2009 at 10:46 AM
Another version using only two frames and I used lighten in layers instead of screen (used in the first two). I like the way the lighten worked and I may stop using the screen in layers for night time lightning. I also didn't clone out the celltowers and other distractions. So it's close as can be to the way we saw it. I'm debating whether to clone out the towers for the keeper image. I like the river marker reflection, but not sure about all the towers.
Posted by Rob Graham on September 7, 2009 at 8:17 PM
great job, I like the last version best, I think the darker clouds do the scene more justice
Posted by Bill Dark on September 8, 2009 at 11:09 PM
Wow, some of the best lightning photography I've seen, Mike. Both versions look great, butI would have to go with the last one too. Thanks for sharing.
Posted by Aaron Szabo on September 9, 2009 at 11:22 AM
Wow Mike, this is great! That is some powerful lightning. It's really clear outside!
Discussion
8 repliesThree shot blend. ISO 200, 8 second burst at F5.6 with a borrowed Nikon d90 (ours is getting a new miror)
I've been playing with the kelvins and after seeing Ed's shot a while back, I'm settled in on 4800. It make the lighting a little warm, but the clouds don't seem as blue.
Here is the better single image of the afternoon. Cropped and dodged a bit.