The photographer is looking for thoughtful feedback on the image as a whole, especially around the areas noted below.
Feedback Focus: Artistic / Expressive
About This Image
A solitary bolt descends from a vast, turbulent sky toward the rugged mountain range below. Photographed in southern Arizona a few days back. Used the Bolt Hunter trigger - quite effective!
Another amazing image! I think there is some leeway for reducing the contrast in the cloud – just a bit. It could still be dramatic enough. Scary weather!
Another dramatic lightning image with a great sky and midground mountains. As with the image you posted the other day, I think a bit more immediate foreground would improve the composition. The tonal values in you OP look great to my eye, Karl.
Please be careful. Lightning has been known to strike many miles from the cloud.
Edited to add this quote from NOAA/NWS:
Since light travels faster than sound, you can use thunder to gage the distance of a lightning strike. You merely count the number of seconds between the moment you see the flash of lightning and hear the clap of thunder. Once you see lightning…start counting seconds. For every 5 seconds that go by before you hear the clap of thunder…that’s one mile. Keep in mind this technique only tells you how far away that one lightning strike was from your location. The next one could be a lot closer. Lightning can travel 10 to 12 miles from a thunderstorm. This is often farther than the sound of thunder travels. That means that if you can hear thunder you are close enough to a storm to be in danger of being struck by lightning. When thunder roars go indoors.
Another winner. I like the contrast in the clouds as you presented them. My only suggestion is that the clouds in the ULC , to my eye seem to have a sepia tone to them. Otherwise, you have captured a poignant moment. Makes me want to find out more about the Bolt Hunter.
Visual Notes
[A1] The clouds here seem to have a sepia tone to my eye.
Another very cool lightning image, Karl. I think the tops of the clouds and the foreground are fine for my taste. The underside of the clouds has a pretty narrow tonality range and I wonder if spreading that out a bit more would give more feeling of depth in that area effectively increasing the feel of the immensity of the storm?
Yes scary and one does have to be careful - there is a app which tells you how far away you are from the action - first signs of rain and we were out of there!
Karl, nice shot! As an owner of a MIOPS and my lukewarm feelings about that device, I’ve been considering the Bolt Hunter. We’ll see.
Anyway, I don’t really have anything new to add here; the sepia-esque tones at the top of the frame are a bit distracting, the sky moodiness may be a tad “overcooked” per my tastes (perhaps play with highlights, blackpoint and/or contrast?). I almost want to crop it to a somewhat pano aspect ratio to draw the eye more to the mountain range and bolt? My eye definitely goes to the clouds first due to their luminosity and proportion; if that was your intent, then disregard. And finally something in the foreground could make the entire comp a bit more compelling, but this may not have been an option nor is this classic advice (fore-mid-background) mandatory of course.
I think the easiest way is to select the area and use either the curves or levels adjustment in PS. I don’t recall ever having to increase it, but I’ve used both those tools to decrease it.
On my “after retirement” bucket list is to prowl some of my old haunts. I love the drama of monsoon season, and will have to check out the Bolt Hunter. Thanks for sharing these examples!
I do think the clouds could use just a tiny bit less contrast. Here’s a wimpy version trying to do that, and to even out the upper corners (that upper right tends to draw my eye). I also converted to sRGB because sometimes things get funky with the wider color spaces and some browsers, and also fully converted to BW to drop the sepia. All personal preference, so feel free to discard.
