Silent Lightning

Looking southeast over the Gulf of Nicoya near Puntarenas, Costa Rica.

It was so far away, looks to be beyond the horizon, that you couldn't hear any thunder.

The lightning is doing it's job, I need to improve on my end to capture more detail. Suggestions please.

The second photo is a crop of the first.

30D, 24-105 @58mm, f8, 23sec bulb exposure, ISO 400, tripod, MLU

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Very nice!

Nice, but it looks like you pushed up the exposure a bit - I can see some noise.

I've done a quick edit with a levels adjustment to darken it a bit and cropped out some of the dark areas at the edges, hope you don't mind.

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Nice shots

cracking shots

there is a little noise in the shot but it has a good impact i to took some photo's of lightning with no thunder strange to see https://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthre​ad.php?t=605114

wow, awesome capture!

Beautiful!

Man, you live in Puntarenas!? Jealousy! I was in Costa Rica for 4 months last summer and didn't want to leave (yes, I endured the rainy season). What do you do down there?

The lightning shot is pretty sweet. They get some crazy storms on the west coast. I was in Santa Rosa when a huge lightning storm descended on the coast. Pretty damn cool.

Keep up the great work.

John

that. is amazing! Nice capture! I'm sure it can't be easy to capture lightning!

With long exposure, it is! It's surprisingly easier than most people imagine. You just need a sturdy tripod, a shutter controller, a possible shelter, and a good lightning storm.

John

Living next to an ocean has sacrifices also. My desktop computer has been consumed by corrosive air. I tried to edit on an old laptop with an old screen. The desktop is running again but with only one display (much better than the laptop). The sea air will eat electronics but I didn’t move here to live in an air conditioned environment.

Thank you all for comments and suggestions.

Curiousgeorge, I found the RAW file and had another go at it. Noise reduction helped a lot as did your suggestions on the levels.

Crashworthy, it is strange to anticipate a thunder boom but…..nothing! Nice shots of yours.

Jrader, I’ve been living here for three years telecommuting. Thank the guy who invented the internet.

Shooting lightning is a lot like fishing. You cast and wait for a strike. As soon as you find a better place to cast, the fish are jumping on the other side. You can't guess where it'll be. Also, fishing is more fun with a beer or two.

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Much better!

Thanks and thanks for the tips.