Thursday, October 4, 2007

Lightning Hitting a Balcony?



It looks like this lightning bolt hit the balcony near the top of the building in the background. I hope no one was home.

12 comments:

lv2scpbk said...

The buildings make this even more interesting than it already was with the lightning. I like the green color of the building on the left. Wonderful capture of the lightning bolt.

stlouismodailyphoto said...

An exciting shot. Having sunset/rise color is more interesting than the dark of night. I sometimes wonder, though, how people time successful lightning shots. Maybe I just have slow reflexes but I've never been able to do it properly. Are there any particular techniques you use?

By the way, what were your ISO, F stop and shutter speed on this?

R&R said...

Cool.

Mona said...

It is rare that we see lightening where I live. that sure sounds scary But the picture is awesome , as usual.

Anonymous said...

great shot!

Charles said...

Victor to Igor: "Its ALIVE!"

isa said...

Very cool! I heard there were some funnel clouds over Miami last night, too...

Courtland said...

lv2scpbk,
thank you

stlouis,
It was actually night time for the photo, but the clouds were reflecting the city lights. The orangish color is from the white balance setting. The key to getting the lighting captured is a long exposure that doesn't allow the ambient to overpower the lightning. My settings for this shot were:

ISO 100
f/10
30 seconds

There is plenty of wiggle room on shutter time. The lightning will be just as bright at 1" as it would be at 30", but its apparent brightness can be affected by the ambient light with too long an exposure. Start out with 15" @ f/8 and play with the shutter time and aperture until you get a good balance of lightning and ambient.

mona, r&r, westondaily, isabella
thank you!

funny charles

Gerald (SK14) said...

wow what a super shot - like stlouis I was wondering how you achieve shots like this -- 30 second exposure eh -- that kinda presupposes you have a good idea in advance of where the lightning is going to strike - thunderstorms here you can never be exactly sure of when or where the lightning will be.

Courtland said...

Hyde,
Exactly, as soon as you see lightning in a thunderstorm, grab the camera, compose the shot, and start shooting. Hopefully you will get something. It's pretty hit or miss. I usually have the brightest and best lightning strikes right between shutter actuations.

Courtland said...

I posted the camera settings and tips a few replies up.

Elaine in the World said...

Wow! That's an amazing capture. Beautiful composition and colour.