Sky Battle Over Dixie
This was an accident really. I was capturing a time-lapse video of the cloud movement...I was totally surprised to find such epic lightning in a couple of the f...
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This was an accident really. I was capturing a time-lapse video of the cloud movement...I was totally surprised to find such epic lightning in a couple of the frames!
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Aug, 2015Views
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Awards
Contest Finalist in Powerful Lightning Photo Contest
Contest Finalist in Summer Adventures Photo Contest
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Contest Finalist in Force Of Nature Photo Contest
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itsnickelwell
March 22, 2016
This is such an incredible photo! I love the layers of foreground / middle ground. Absolutely fantastic capture!!
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Behind The Lens
Location
Right near my house actually. There is a city park that is up on a hill which overlooks the entire valley, I had hiked into the park quite a ways to shoot a time-lapse of the cloud movement.Time
This was taken just before dark, technically this was during 'sunset hours', but due to the storm we didn't get a standard sunset.Lighting
Not anything too fancy really, this was taken on an extended shutter which was open just long enough to capture the lightning.Equipment
Camera: Canon EOS 7D Lens: 50mm - f/1.4 set at ƒ/1.8, 3 seconds, ISO 400. Tripod: All Manfrotto gear.Inspiration
Honestly, this is a single frame from a timelapse. I was lucky enough to set up the camera in a good direction, I was capturing the cloud movement when the lightning started striking. Mostly luck!!Editing
Always. My background comes from working in film. So all my previous experience and instruction was to take the correct camera exposure in order to give you the tools needed in the darkroom to get the perfect image. To this day, I almost always under or over expose every image (depending on the situation), in order to give myself the largest expanse of options once I start processing. My actual process would take way too long to describe here, but I'm working on a series of youtube videos to outline what I do. For now, I'll tell you that I do utilize both Adobe Lightroom as well as Photoshop for virtually all of my work. I start with a good histogram and then develop the image I saw in my head when I captured the scene.In my camera bag
I only ever shoot with Canon L series glass. It's definitely not a snobbish thing...but more the fact that I used to own cheaper lenses and in my experience...they never could get the image sharpness or quality that I wanted. On an average day in the field, my two favorite lenses for landscapes are the 16-35mm and the 70-200mm. For a portrait session...my go-to lens has always been the 85mm, with the 70-200mm as a solid backup.Feedback
Long exposures are the way to go. Set up on a tripod, either use bulb mode with a trigger, or do your best to use 30 second exposures. If your lighting conditions are still too bright, your only way to get a longer exposure will be to use a Neutral Density filter.
