My first lightning shot

Unimaxium · Jun 30, 2006

A thunder storm rolled through last night, so I decided to head out with my new camera and a tripod to see if I could get anything good. I only got one decent shot, and it's not perfect, but I really like it. I fiddled around with the white balance settings on my computer and got these three results, and I'm not sure which one I like better. I think I'm leaning towards the orange one.

1. This is pretty much how it looked when it came out of the camera (I had the white balance set to something funky)

2. I think this is closer to the color that the sky was at that time (it wasn't very long after sunset so the sky had a pretty purple color).

3. Here's one with a more neutral color. I think it's my least favorite.

Thank goodness for RAW shooting ;-)

omeletteman · Jun 30, 2006

i'll vote for the orange one. Nice work with this one.

carddesigner · Jun 30, 2006

I like the first (orange) one the best. You got the definition of the clouds, the trees' silhouettes and the lightning bolt all at once, which amazed me, since I can get the bolts, but not the cloud definition, or any other combo of two of the three, and I am still learning (got a few the other night here in the Chicago suburbs). The orange color gives it a gloomy (but in a good way) kind of feel, which is nicely different, instead of electric blue. The offset bolt is okay, since it makes you wonder, "what got hit over there?"

Isn't it exciting when you finally get your first lightning shot!?!

Unimaxium · Jun 30, 2006

carddesigner said:
Isn't it exciting when you finally get your first lightning shot!?!

It sure is! You should have heard me last night as I was trying to get the perfect shot. It seemed like whenever I would let the shutter close a lightning bolt would strike immediately after the exposure, after which I would yell a string of expletives. :lol:

But then when I finally saw that shot pop up on the display I was really happy that I actually got something.

Arch · Jun 30, 2006

very cool, i like 1 and 2,....... 1 has a nice tone and colour, but 2 makes the tree silhouette stand out more...... good stuff tho :thumbup:

whardman · Jun 30, 2006

Two is much more natural. Lightning tends to have a bluish purple look to it. At least thats what I see when I'm trying to take pictures of lightning. What were the settings it was taken at?

Unimaxium · Jun 30, 2006

whardman said:
Two is much more natural. Lightning tends to have a bluish purple look to it. At least thats what I see when I'm trying to take pictures of lightning. What were the settings it was taken at?

I used my 30D in bulb mode with a Tamron 17-35mm f/2.8-4.0 zoomed out at 17mm (27mm equiv.). According to the EXIF data, the exposure for this shot was about 7s at f/5.6 and ISO 200. If you want to see more, the EXIF data should still be attached to the images in the post above ;-)