My best work so far

[wrxflame]

Hi there, just new and wanted to get the low down on a couple of images that I like and would like to get some feedback. Pictures were taken with prosumer Fujifilm S9500.

As I said in the title, I consider this one of my best images and will be crushed if it's crap. :D This was easter morning on the Murray river at Morgan in SA, I was captured by mirror calm water and the reflections.

http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b259/wrxflame/DSCF0313Medium.jpg

This one is my first ever lightning shot close up, taken from my balcony during the big storm here in Adelaide just before new year.

http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b259/wrxflame/ForkoverMarinaLarge.jpg

Looking forward to getting my 400D in the next few weeks.

Cheers
Andrew

[led hed]

great shots, maybe straighten them both out on the horizon a little? 1st one anyway

[milleker]

Congrats on the lightning. Perfect placement in the frame - almost looks fake, but I know (hope?) it isn't since the EXIF shows a 28 second exposure.

#1 is good, and as said by Rob, straighten out the horizon. I'd clone out the smaller stump and crop so that there are no branches on the far left of the frame. Keep it clean and simple and its a winner.

[wrxflame]

Thank you for taking the time to comment.

I now see the horizon point you guys make and I never noticed those stray reeds before!

As for the lightning, pure and simple luck that it struck at that point in the frame and as for fake, heck I don't even know how you extracted the EXIF data from the image let alone build something like that. I just tried to focus on far away object and used the S9500's max bulb of 30 seconds with shutter release and tripod. I had another bolt strike about 8 seconds later as you can see from the image below. I was so excited and my wife was there to see it all as well.

http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b259/wrxflame/AmazingBoltLarge.jpg

I plan to be here for a while and have no desire to create some fabricated image of myself or my ability with a camera. Just love taking pictures is all, mostly for my own satisfaction.

Regards
Andrew

[milleker]

Now #3 is a great shot as well!

I don't get lightning like that around my area, if so its very rare.

EXIF data can be read by saving the image and then going into the properties of it in Windows. Or for Firefox users I have an extension loaded called 'FXIF' that shows the information by right-clicking on the image in the browser and going to properties. As for fabricated lightning, it has its place. :)

[Hellashot]

#1 has a crooked horizon. Overall there isn't much to it and I find it a little bland. It is also a bit over exposed. In a photoshop, do an auto levels and you'll see it look a lot better. You can also darken the highlights 10% and add a good 10% contrast. It's a peaceful shot, but there's not much to it. I don't find the dead tree that exciting as it is the only subject/foreground. Your background is so far away is hardly affects the picture.

Keep trying. :)

[crayfish13]

Thanks sooo much for that FXIF program its awesome. I think its gonna help a lot. Thanks again. Awesome shots I really like them.

[Kiddo]

WOW!! Those 2 lighting photos are amazing!! Great job!

[italypa99]

how would you get lightning like that ?? bulb?

[Bignerd]

the combination of the lightening and the lighting on the boats make the second pic my favorite of the three. We dont get lightening often over here, so I am jealous!

[wrxflame]

Thanks for the encouraging words.

As for how I got it. The process is pretty simple the hard part is getting Mother Nature to do her stuff in the bit of sky you point the camera at.

Before I start, I'm waiting on a new 400D so this is the way I did it with a Fuji S9500 but I'm sure it's almost the same with a Canon DSLR.

Forgive me for amature description. With camera on tripod I auto focused on the boats and then switched to maual than selected the bit of sky I flet most likley to get a strike. Selected bulb (max 30 seconds) and with a manual shutter release cable held the shutter open and crossed my fingers. As soon as the lightning flashed I closed the shutter, hence the 1st image at 28 second and the second darker image at around 5 seconds. I used an apature of 5.6 from memory.

I gave no thought to horizon, boat positions or anything to do with composition other than having some of the marina in the picture for scale. For the lighning to fill the sky in the way it did was the pure luck bit.

Cheers
Andrew

PS: I will be purchasing the RS30E (I think that's the one) as this will enable me to do the manual shutter release on the 400D. There is a wireless version but I was told that won't work for these type of shots.

[wrxflame]

It's be a short 4 months since I first arrived and boy have I learned that I don't know jack about photography other than I an keen and I don't know much.

The good news is that I have moved up one spot for unconsciously incompetent to ---> consiously incompetent and that's a good thing!

Just thought I'd revisit one of my first posts and say that looking at these images, I have come so far but still have a massive journey ahead.

Cheers
Andrew

[achristian]

Number one: I think that the horizon is not level.
Two is a great shot.

[Desertraptor]

Awesome shots Andrew. I guess these are the ones you refered to ?
I have only taken a few lightning but nothing like these

[12stones]

The first one is crisp, but lacks anything interesting. The second one is phenomenal. I remember some of the lightning storms in Woomera when I was there for a few weeks over a decade ago. Too bad I wasn't snappin' pictures then. The third one is nice too, but would have been great if you'd kept the exposure open just a few more seconds.