Lightning suggestions, or straight out of the camera

[leon]

Hi guys, some suggestions or personal preference to original out of the camera images, or ones that have been fiddled with.

I was lucky last night to capture some lightning strikes, and there were plenty, of coarse not all landed in front of my lens.

As we know all lightning captures are different and depending on the clouds and so on the color can be quite different as well, as seen in this image from last night.

It, the image is bright, full on, and comes out a pinkish color due to the dull grey cloud cover.

Is it OK, straight out of the camera, or should it be altered.

The first image here is untouched, and the second is obviously fiddled with, your suggestions please.

Leon :thumbsup:

[CapturingTheNight]

Lovely images Leon :thumbsup: The straight out of the camera one looks great in it's own right where as the edited one is also great and has a feeling of more drama. I think it really comes down to personal choice with editing, and what you ultimately want the picture to convey or highlight. If I was wanting to say "look at what I just captured" then I wouldn't be touching the original much at all. Maybe just remove that bright dot in the right hand corner. Where as if I was going for a really dramatic looking image, I would be doing a lot of what you have probably done with second one. Contrast, boost the whites a bit, desaturation, levels, curves, etc. to really highlight the lightning on it's own.

[Astroman]

I personally like the straight one, but also the edited one still looks good but just looks a little too dark, if the clouds were lightened up a bit to reduce the overall contrast, I would like it more... But Personally, unedited... What WB did you shoot with?

[alan meehan]

Nice shots Leon my chioce would be the first one
AL

[Larryp]

Good shots, Leon! 2nd shows the lightning in more contrast, but its personal preference-both are good

[leon]

Many thanks, I too have a preference for the original capture, and as mentioned it is personal preference.

Andrew, the camera was on Auto WB, do you think it should be set otherwise, any suggestions welcome.

Leon

[Astroman]

Any WB adjustmenst can be done in post editing, if shooting RAW. I mainly shoot Daylight WB for Lightning, which is what it would have been around, given the pinky look... Around cities with amber lighting I sometimes shoot Tungsten. But adjusting the WB in post editing you can adjust it to a colour you like and best matches what you saw... I try and get the clouds more greyish colour when editing. Seems more natural.

[leon]

Thanks Andrew, appreciate your suggestions, here are a couple of different images from a couple of weeks ago, they too are as captured.

One can see that every situation is different.

Leon :thumbsup:

[Astroman]

Very nice Leon, good examples of a Crawler and a Clear Air Positive Strike... or Anvil Lightning. The second one Anvil lighting is often called the bolt from the blue as it appears to come out of the blue, away from the storm, very dangerous if you happen to be within reach... Luckily you weren't. Great shots.

[MrB]

Also prefer the straight lightning shots.
Nice Pos CG shot!
Pos CG is about 10 times more powerful than 'normal' lightning, due to the potential needed to cover such a large distance.
It also produces the 'whoopwhoopwhoop' style thunder. Hard to explain the sound, but it gets my heart pumping every time :D

[leon]

Many thanks for your comments and suggestions, I will see if i can capture some more in the coming wet season.

Leon

[lacad01]

Awesome shots Leon, would have been something else to witness that :thumbsup:

[leon]

Yes it was Adam, thank you for your interest.

Leon

[gregbradley]

Fantastic lightning shots.

Greg.

[leon]

Thank you Greg, I reckon there pretty cool too.

Leon

[Derek Klepp]

Great shots Leon I'm pretty new to all this stuff but I try to bring the lightning out a bit using shadows and highlights in Picasa to try and see whats there. So I like your second pic but lightning's lightning and any pic is a great pic as far as I'm concerned.

[leon]

Your comments are appreciated Derek, it certainly is a great hobby chasing storms.

Leon

[ourkind]

Great captures Leon, I like original one you loaded first more than the edited version, but that's just my personal preference. The other two you loaded are stunners!

[leon]

Thank You Carlos, probably not stunners but I too am impressed with the captures.

Leon