Chasing the Light

[Gary A.]

Gotta tell ya Chris. I am impressed and jealous of your image to the point where I just ordered a wide angle lens for my M/F camera. If you keep posting this stuff ... you'll drive me to the poor house. (Make that the poorer ... poorier ... poverty ... living on the street ... house.)

 

[Derrel]

I wish that distant lighting strike were a bit more visible...

Like Gary A, I too was surprised at how still the grasses appear to be with such a long exposure! And although I am not as big a contrast freak as Gary, I do think a grade more worth of SNAP! might help.,..or even just a few well-placed bits of dodging to sort of break things up a little...and maybe get that lighting bolt to be 3x brighter by zooming in on it to 300% and selecting it and almost blowing it out to 255?

 

[bulldurham]

I'll try on the lightning but it was the last strike of many during that long exposure and not so clearly defined. The stillness of the grass was because there wasn't a breath of air until about two minutes after the exposure was made and the rain front caught up to where I was set up. I'll work on the snap aspect and I think I can get that to work in the foreground grasses. I think you'll like the new version when I post.

 

[Derrel]

I'll try on the lightning but it was the last strike of many during that long exposure and not so clearly defined. The stillness of the grass was because there wasn't a breath of air until about two minutes after the exposure was made and the rain front caught up to where I was set up. I'll work on the snap aspect and I think I can get that to work in the foreground grasses. I think you'll like the new version when I post.

YES!!!! I just came from the Chasing The Light Redux post, and I must say, the increased emphasis on the lighting strike is every bit as good as I had thought it might be--it REALLY elevates the picture. Even though it's just a teeny-tiny object within the frame, having the lighting strike be very clear reallllly boosts the shot.

Chasing the Light Redux Photography Forum

 

[Gary A.]

I like the ooz. If this was my image, (I wish it was), I'd dodge out the berm a bit, kick up the contrast (I'm a contrast freak). But to my eye, the lack of contrast, where I would want/expect contrast, builds up a tension ... I appreciate this self-generated contradiction. I am surprised with the motionless character of the grasses after a nine minute 45 second exposure. I'd love to see this in print.

I would appreciate an edit showing me what you mean. I did knock down the brightness in the middle-ground berm by about 15% and burned in the foreground by almost 25% with a bit of contrast in each area. I too am a contrast freak and have been trying to tone it down a bit as sometimes I tend to go overboard.

Okay, this is a very rough take of a bit of dodging mainly on the berm but also on some parts of the water.

For my tastes, I think the hot spot in the clouds is a tad too hot. I like the lightning in the redux. But by bringing up the berm ... I think you lose a lot of that sullen, overcast moodiness which really grabbed me tightly in the original.

I initially did some global manipulations, which was a mistake ... I should have left your original clouds alone and just screwed around with the part below the horizon line.