Tiny storm with lightning

[Doug Raflik]

Was going through some pics from this summer and found this one I forgot about...

http://www.wxnut.net/elec35.htm

Doug Raflik
[email protected]
http://www.wxnut.net

 

[Jeff Snyder]

Was this a picture that you personally shot? I only ask because the intensity of the orange in the lower-right makes me thing sunset, yet the sky is so dark that this can't be the case. Are those 'city lights' in the lower-right?

 

[David Wolfson]

It's a -- well -- very creative picture. Among other things, unless my monitor is deceiving me, it looks like the artist didn't rubber-stamp out a few "stars" inside the "cloud".

 

[Joel Wright]

It's a -- well -- very creative picture. Among other things, unless my monitor is deceiving me, it looks like the artist didn't rubber-stamp out a few "stars" inside the "cloud".

Good call, I didn't even notice that until you posted.

 

[Rockwell Schrock]

Well, the "stars" on the clouds could very easily be artifacts on the lens that were lit up, since this is obviously a long exposure time. The orange could be from street lights, and the "doubling" effect in the clouds could be from separate lightning strikes that lit the clouds up as they moved closer or farther away.

Just a thought.

 

[Andrew Geil]

Nice. :>

 

[Doug Lee]

If the orange glow is the setting sun, it's in the right place for summer, assuming you are looking west. But the stars visible above the sunglow seems wrong.

Wouldn't the main storm tower be backlit byt he sun? :?

 

[Doug Raflik]

Only photoshop in this picture is, I brought levels up as it was a little too dark for my taste. I adjusted contrast, and I cloned out some power lines in the foreground. The "stars" in the cloud are just dead pixels I guess. Shutter was open for 17 seconds f/4.5 at ISO 400. The bright orange lights would be the outskirts of the City of Madison Wisconsin.

Funny. I dismissesd this as "just an OK picture" when I took it and never put it on my web site. Now that I am bored and SDS has kicked in... I am looking through old pictures, I put it online and posted it to a couple photo fourms and here, and I get all this "It looks too good to be real" stuff. If some still do not believe me, I have other pics from this storm I would be happy to post. This one was the only good one where you could see a fair amount of bolts.

Doug Raflik
[email protected]
http://www.wxnut.net

 

[Mike Hollingshead]

Very cool Doug. Yeah looks like dead pixels, or at least "hot" ones. I get those alot on my canon on longer exposures. Much worse than I ever got on my sony. Then again sony was so noisy they probably just blended in more.

 

[John Gnuechtel]

I can confirm the hot pixel problem with my Canon as well. Try doing a super long exposure (over 2-3 minutes), and the bright spots get so bad you can't keep the picture. I only know this because I tried beating on it once to see what the limits were. Though I have heard this can permanently ruin the CCD, mine still works just fine.

 

[David Wolfson]

Doug, since it's your picture I apologise for doubting and have to say it's one amazing picture! And the "hot pixel" effect that simulates stars is something I sure may want to duplicate. And the vertical lightning out of the cloud... wow! That's a keeper!

 

[Susan Strom]

Very cool 8)

 

[Tim Vasquez]

This photo shows one of the key compositions of a good weather shot: contrast between warm and cool hues.

Tim

 

[Doug Raflik]

And the "hot pixel" effect that simulates stars is something I sure may want to duplicate.

Well most of them ARE stars. The ones in the upper right anyway. The white spots in the cloud are not, but the others are.

 

[Joey Ketcham]

Nice, what camera do you use?