First Try at Lightning

[wmaburnett]

Here is my first non scenic try at lightning here in early spring north america with rain spitting at me, i was usuing my 18-70mm lens,





Any comments, suggestion or anythign would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks
~William

[stubbsy]

William

The second image works better for me since there's no land at the bottom so we have just the tree & the sky, but regardless these are both great captures and would look great nice & big.

[avkomp]

the first one doesnt do anything for me
but
just love the second. well done.

steve

[greencardigan]

Very nice. Must have been quite spectacular to watch.

The second one without the ground looks better to me.

[Laurie]

i love lightning shots, and i looks to me that you captured them quiet well. its always difficult when there is water and a camera.

[MattC]

Both are well captured. I have no objection to having the ground in the shot.

I would however back the exposure off a little. The tree would be primarily lit by artificial light sources and WB on the foreground does not appear right. Darkening the exposure will not hurt the capture of the lightning, but will darken the foreground some - and those artificial light sources will have less impact. I also find that the exposure of the foreground is distracting me from the real subject - the lightning.

Cheers

[elffinarts]

while I see Matt's comment on the conflicting white balance issue with the somewhat orange tree being technically correct, I actually dont mind the shot as it is. It makes me think of autumn colours - though, is that tree an evergreen? lol

I have no aversions to seeing land in a lightning shot (providing it has a straight horizon and doesnt detract from the lightning with too much detail) and sometimes the land can be used to frame the shape of lightning strikes to good effect. In the case of the second shot I think it worked well with the overall composition.