f8, 15 sec, ISO 400,
(If this is a composite, etc. please be honest with your techniques to help others learn)
If you would like your image to be eligible for a feature on the NPN Instagram (@NaturePhotoNet), add the tag ‘ig’ and leave your Instagram username below.
ig cheryl_a_kuhl
You may only download this image to demonstrate post-processing techniques.
Thanks Max. I love the purples tones as well. When I first started photographing lightning, it was sometimes very purple. I thought it was a camera setting. Thankfully, no. It is the electricity exciting the nitrogen and oxygen molecules. Yeah for science.
I really like this! The color of the ionized gasses is spectacular. I also like that you got some detail on the mountains, and there is just enough terrain to anchor the image.
Are you using a lightning trigger, or just leaving the shutter open?
Great timing and exposure on this shot, Cheryl. I too like the colors and tones, but also the streaks of lightening and how it is creating so many lines and shapes to enjoy.
Preston, on this image, since it was totally dark (2 AM) it was a remote trigger release locked at 15 second exposures. There was a lot of close lightning in the area at the time, but this was a single event. That said, I do use a Lightning Trigger if there is daylight, since the exposure time is short.
What an amazing capture, Cheryl. Electrifying - pun intended. Did you expect to get lightning? The placement of the lightning or your camera movement to get the lightning on the left charging right makes the image - I can feel the air and wind. And, the purple color is great. The camera sees the detail in the lightning far better than the human eye ever could. Just great!
Bill, thanks for the kind words. Actually, the experience was a bit too exhilarating. Within a few minutes the lightning stuck within a a couple hundred yards of my location…thought I would be permanently blinded. That image was one very large brilliant white blob. Lesson learned.
Larry, thanks for the compliment. One of the few things I have patience for is photography. Yes, I do follow radar to anicticpate the direction and movement of a storm, and the direction of the lightning strikes. Frame it up, take a few exposures (with a lightning strike), check the images, adjust as necessary, few more exposures…so on until the foreground and the lightning seems acceptable. Set the camera with a remote cable release to take one exposure after another (this case 15 sec). Check back every so often to reframe, as lightning approaches.
Magnificent shot, and thanks for all the information. I’m frightened of lightning, too much of a fraidy cat to get out there in this kind of scene. Kudos for your courage.
