Lighting up the sky
Took this shot last night (16Oct13) after arriving home from an awards evening. I calmly grabbed my camera and tripod and proceeded outside. First focussed on t...
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Took this shot last night (16Oct13) after arriving home from an awards evening. I calmly grabbed my camera and tripod and proceeded outside. First focussed on the house just to get focussing distance right and then switched to manual. I set the ISO to 100 and my white balance to incandescent and F-9. I set the shutter on bulb and used my remote, leaving the shutter open just long enough for lightning and closing it the moment I got them. Got about 10 useful shots in total, but this was the most spectacular by far.
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Oct, 2013Views
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alexiusvanderwesthuizen
December 08, 2013
Thank you too all members who have taken the time to view my photo and all the awards you bestowed on my work. I sincerely appreciate it.
Same photographer See allBehind The Lens
Behind The Lens
Location
This photo was taken in Bassonia, an upmarket suburb in the South of Johannesburg, South Africa.Time
The shot was taken at about 21h32 on the 16th of October 2013.Lighting
No artificial lighting sources were used in the creation of this shot. This is all natural light. I think what is worth mentioning is that my ISO was set at 100 with an aperture of F./11 and an exposure time of 20.4 seconds.Equipment
Nikon D5100 with a Nikkor 18-200mm F./3.5-5.6 VR ll ED mounted on a Hahnel Triad 40 lite tripod.Inspiration
I have always been fascinated by lightning but never been in a position to capture it. In the past I had been shooting with a compact digital and it's near impossible to capture lightning with that. This storm erupted as I was on my way home. Luckily I was not caught in the eye of the storm so it was pretty easy to capture this. My original inspiration came from the work produced by other photographers from all around the globe. However, my inspiration changed the moment I knew I could also capture stunning lighting shots. From that moment on, I became my own biggest inspiration and now try and surpass the quality of shots taken by myself previously.Editing
As this is a 2 shot exposure, I had to use stacking software. I used software called StarStax which is obtained free on the net. I then just added finishing touches in Lightroom by slightly amping the contrast and clarity.In my camera bag
Nikon D5100 with a Nikkor 18-200mm VR ll ED lens and a Nikon Coolpix P7100 compact digital as well as a wireless remote.Feedback
The main requirement with any shots taken at night is to mount the camera on a tripod. Secondly, and quite important, is to ensure that you pre-focus and then switch off your auto focus. Not doing this your camera will keep on hunting and you will miss crucial shots. Another incredibly important issue is to use a wireless remote. This will prevent any movements from hands being taken off the camera after the shutter has been released. Set your picture control to incandescent to avoid any red showing up in the photograph. Since taking this shot, I have switched to setting the shutter on bulb and exposing the sensor for 4 seconds at a time thereby eliminating any shots being overexposed.
