High Voltage Megawatt Gallery

What a cool club and some incredible photos! Wow! I finally got a good camera to shoot lightning with this year and yet good lightning producing storms have been pretty rare for me this year (ongoing drought in Texas...not many storms at all). Maybe I need to fly out to Arizona some weekend? :)

Anyway, here are my contributions:

1) How about lightning over a power plant? High voltage enough? ;-)
http://www.texastailchaser.com/2005blog/02.jpg

2) Trying to stay out ahead of the 05/13/05 beast in Throckmorton County, TX
http://www.texastailchaser.com/2005blog/01.jpg

3) A lucky pre-dusk shot (f22 ISO100) with two bolts that take on a "walking" apperance.
http://www.texastailchaser.com/2005blog/20...20050613/03.jpg

4) A nice bolt hits right after I open the shutter...and close enough to make me jump in the vehicle. :shock: http://www.texastailchaser.com/2005blog/20...20050613/21.jpg

5) This would have turned out better if the wind hadn't been assaulting me with about 50mph gusts. It caused the left bolt to "double"...perhaps as a result of a return stroke? Maybe. http://www.texastailchaser.com/2005blog/20...20050613/17.jpg

6) A "lightning man"? My niece says so. ;-)
http://www.texastailchaser.com/2005blog/20...20050611/23.jpg

7) I thought this was a pretty cool effect with the inflow bands.
http://www.texastailchaser.com/2005blog/20...20050611/14.jpg
 
Anyone compaired digital camera shots of lightning to film cameras?

I've been told digital does not look as good?

Mike
 
Anyone compaired digital camera shots of lightning to film cameras?

I've been told digital does not look as good?

Mike
Click to expand...

I'm strictly a film girl. One of the reasons is magazine reproduction. The editors want to see my slide, have it in their hand and know that the image is real. I have been shown also that digitals have trouble with the very dark tonal areas. If you take an image like this...with all these light and dark values, I wonder if digital could pull it off the same way? I honestly don't know, but I have heard that it's a struggle to avoid noise in the dark areas and lightning photos are particularly challenging. For now, I'm keeping my film 8)
3aa3046585a537cb9a1eb913c320bd25.jpg

PS...Great stuff you guys are posting!!
 
Anyone compaired digital camera shots of lightning to film cameras?

I've been told digital does not look as good?

Mike
Click to expand...

Although it pains me to admit it, I'd switch to digital if the 'entry fee' (the camera body, a few zooms (thousands), about 6 prime focus lenses (another 'thousands'), memory cards ($100's), etc.) wasn't so steep.

Scanned film is full of grain and grain aliasing noise, and desktop scanners introduce pixel level chromatic and luminance noise due to the three color sensor arrangement. PMT based drum scanners are largely immune to the electronic noise issues, but they cost thousands. All my lightning photos (only a few actually) have been run through Neatimage and various PS filters in an attempt to expunge as much noise/grain/dust as possible. Good (IMO) results are certainly posible, but you'll need to spend an hour or so per image in post processing.

A 30 second digicam exposure will also accumulate various forms of electronic noise (summer heat doesn't help!). From what I've seen, this is no worse (and often markedly better) than the grain and scanner artifacts mentioned above.

As for dynamic range, it's probably a toss. Film's response curve has a gentle toe and foot that is very good at recording highlights without completely blowing them away. Digital has more raw dynamic range, but the linear response and abrupt transition to saturation can look harsh. When home scanning slide film, it is impossible to squeeze all the shadow detail out of the negative. Again, a bazillion $ scanner would help.

Cost aside, my big reservation regarding digital is sensor decay. My old 3MP P/S has grown several 100% stuck pixels, and the others are getting noisier as time goes by. I paid $500 for it several years back, and am rather unhappy at the thought of a self-destructing camera. My 70's A-1 will probably outlive all the digicams I'll ever buy.

For the moment, I don't have the $ to switch anyway. I'll hole up in the "Film user" bunker and await further events.

-Greg

p.s. That's a sweet antenna hit, Darren!
 
My 70's A-1 will probably outlive all the digicams I'll ever buy.
Click to expand...
Ain't that the truth! The A-1 is a true workhorse. Mine has been inside of burning buildings for years, being douched by fire hoses and swirling debris. It's fallen off the back of fire trucks. It's been thrown out of a vehicle that was blown away by a tornado. Through all that, I have lost a couple of lenses, but the camera itself just keeps on putting out great photos. My digital wouldn't survive any of that.

Darin, that first shot is fantastic! The way it seems to come out of nowhere is awesome!
 
May 13, 2005 Throckmorton Texas

[Broken External Image]:http://midwestchasers.com/2005/May/13th/may13_2.JPG

May 16, 2005 Oklahoma panhandle
[Broken External Image]:http://midwestchasers.com/2005/June/16th/June16.JPG


Thought i would add a few more from this year. I took more video than still this year and alot of my pictures still need to be posted on my site as well as on to print from the film. Ill have more up sooner or later. I know i have a few good shots from a few nights ago just need another storm to roll through to finish off the roll.
 
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