A few storm shots...

[offcamber]

Last week a buddy and I took a bit of a photography vacation to the panhandle of Texas. On the way there, we got caught between two storms with some incredible lightning. We pulled off to the side of the road onto a hill and setup our cameras and took some weather shots for about a half hour. Here are some of the results.


http://offcamber.smugmug.com/photos/637840956_HBAYw-XL-6.jpghttp://offcamber.smugmug.com/photos/637839872_YqzQ9-XL-6.jpg

http://offcamber.smugmug.com/photos/637775148_gkyhj-XL-6.jpg

http://offcamber.smugmug.com/photos/637839872_YqzQ9-XL-6.jpg

http://offcamber.smugmug.com/photos/637839636_t5XWB-XL-6.jpg

[offcamber]

one last one:

http://offcamber.smugmug.com/photos/637839539_uBCAV-XL-6.jpg

[itzcryptic]

Those are really amazing. I've never gotten a good lightening shot.

[Odds Hawaii]

wow, I really love the color.

[Redone26]

Awesome, wish we had storms like that here in the UK.

[Celestron]

Nice shots , did you PP the images or use a special filter ? These would look much better IMHO in the original color .

[offcamber]

Those are out of the camera. The only PP I did was remove some power lines out of a couple of them and do some noise reduction. I shot a storm to the north of me and one to the south. Those were from the South. The more northern storm shots were reddish. I'm not sure where the coloring came from, but the purple was natural.

[aebrown]

The last one is my favorite, the only thing I would change about it is the sign in the lower right corner, just clone it out so it's black. Well done!

[ady.space]

stunning pics

[Celestron]

Those are out of the camera. The only PP I did was remove some power lines out of a couple of them and do some noise reduction. I shot a storm to the north of me and one to the south. Those were from the South. The more northern storm shots were reddish. I'm not sure where the coloring came from, but the purple was natural.


What camera and lens did you use ??

[offcamber]

50D and 17-40F4L. My buddies 1D gave the same results as well.

[Celestron]

50D and 17-40F4L. My buddies 1D gave the same results as well.


WOW ! Both great products . Just so strange why the color came out that way . How do your other regular images come out ?? Any color problems ?

[itzcryptic]

WOW ! Both great products . Just so strange why the color came out that way . How do your other regular images come out ?? Any color problems ?

Probably has to do with the white balance.

[jgrussell]

Nice shots, and that last one is wonderful.

[Adrena1in]

Awesome, wish we had storms like that here in the UK.

Yeah, me too. The dog hates it, but I love a good thunder storm. Best I've seen were out in America though.

Lovly photos, and spectacular colours.

[mlc]

These are awesome!!

[mritchy]

Gotta love Texas :) Great shots.

[Jon Foster]

Great shots. I get the purple/blue color when I try too.

Jon.

[Stav_98]

Absolutely fantastic!

[painful100]

amazing, i love them. Lightning must be so fun to photograph! I never get here

[WMS]

Awesome, wish we had storms like that here in the UK.

I doubt that you really want Midwestern class thunderstorms where you live. Having grown up in Kansas (a couple of states north of west Texas) and like Texas a part of 'tornado alley' I know just how badly most non mid-westerners panic when one of those big thunderstorms draws a big bulls eye on you.
Just to give you an idea of just how bad these storms can get when they spawn tornadoes which they can and do, especially in the spring time you might want to view these photos of Greensburg, Kansas after a F5 (about as mean a storm as there is)

http://www.kansas.com/static/slides/050507tornadoaerials/

Wayne

[Ripskin]

Great shots, I didnt have a good place to set up by time the storms hit Dallas / went by it sadly.... And I doubt they would look that good in the city, great work!

[Eliza Rain]

those are amazing!

[Karl Johnston]

I've only seen one dramatic lightning storm in the past 3 years; this one looks like an equivalent! I love these storms! Amazing pictures, bring back memories.

[mikey42]

Just curious, what were your exposure settings for those shots?

[Gliebster]

Incredible shots. I love lightning shots like these where half of the scene is dark and the other half is the strike. The contrast of utter darkness and utter brightness is stunning.

[mtbdudex]

Just curious, what were your exposure settings for those shots?

+1.
I'd like to know exposure so when we get weather here in Michigan I can set-up in the home and go outside and shoot away.

[trailblazer87]

Around here we dread a lightning storm like this because nothing starts a good wildfire like a mean ol' thunder cracker. They are pretty though, excellent shots, I like the color.

[lunelson]

Lovely shots and great color. The color definitely looks accurate to me -- just check out the blue highway sign to confirm that it's at least pretty close.

[offcamber]

+1.
I'd like to know exposure so when we get weather here in Michigan I can set-up in the home and go outside and shoot away.

Most of them were shot at F/8.0, ISO 400 and 11sec exposure. Basically I opened the shutter in bulb mode and then after a good strike shut it. If you are getting a lot of activity its sort of easy to get good shots. Just be careful as the lightning can get pretty close and sneak up on you. As you can see in those pictures, I was in wide open country but worse still I was up on a hill. When I started getting strikes within a mile, we packed up.