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datazoid — Twin
Published: 2009-02-04 11:37:22 +0000 UTC; Views: 1759; Favourites: 48; Downloads: 27
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Description
A couple of lightning bolts.And a fun lesson in which camera not to buy for photographing lightning (or anything that happens in the dark, for that matter).
The grain is a feature of this picture, it's meant to represent the lightning's desire to flee the clouds and join with the ground as one harmonius unit of..oh, who am I kidding. The grain is there because the camera sucks. As soon as I find something high enough, I'm gonna find out if it bounces.
Nice lightning, though.
Lightning Ridge, NSW, Australia.
UPDATE, October 2012: This one's been long overdue for an improvement. Cleaned the image up, reduced noise, tweaked contrast. The original, for comparison, is preserved for posterity here:
[link]
I'm much happier with the updated version.
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Comments: 38
The fifth displayed here is perfect. This is my favorite lightning piece of yours, for sure. I mean heck, when you can see the color transitions in the purest form of natural energy, it's hard to not like this photo. It's like a rainbow that'll blow your head off because it's so hardcore...
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Indeed indeed, but every word is true. Although seeing this makes me want to develop a rainbow cannon that could blow apart people in a fabulous fashion...
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Wow, Data! Bad camera or not, this is a fantastic capture!
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Print?????????
*jumping up and down and pointing at self* "Paying customer here!!!!"
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Aw, thanks. I've chosen not to release any of my pictures as prints through deviantART. Sorry. Thanks for the appreciation, though.
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Have you tried maxing and dropping the ISO? I've a couple buddies that do the long exposure astro shots and I really don't understand it but often the 1600-3200 ISO appears less grainy than the 100 ISO. Maybe it's got a lot to do with the camera and type of shot they're doing, iono I'm clueless with long exposure night shots.
How do the 100 exposure shots turn out on your lightning bolts? Also have you tried some of the noise reduction programs out there like noiseninja? I hear they do a great job overall without taking away from picture quality.
Regardless I love this shot, 2 strong bolts in a single exposure, good times!
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I don't quite understand that, either. Generally, the higher the ISO, the more grain. I find the grain is intolerable at anything above 400 for dark shots with my camera.
I usually try to stick to 100 ISO wherever possible, simply because it will have less ISO noise than higher settings, but for the recent storms I've had no choice but to use higher ISO levels, hence why the photos recently have been quite grainy.
I'm experimenting with a demo version of NoiseWare at the moment, and I'm really liking the results, but it'll be a while before I can cough up $80 for a working copy of it.
In the meanwhile, gritty photos ahoy!
Thanks for your support.
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Well your lightning fans (me included) don't mind at all.
On a side note, I WISH my nikon d40 went as low as 100 ISO, sometimes I kick myself for being so impulsive.
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I'm surprised the D40 doesn't go below ISO 200. I remember reading about it (a friend recently purchased a D60, after some deliberation, so much research went into the D40 in the process), and I don't remember noticing that. How bizarre!
Wanna swap?
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Nah it's cool. I'm still gaga about this camera, it's my first dslr
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From what I've read, the D40's a pretty awesome camera. You can't really go wrong with Nikon, even their pocket cameras kick butt over most other brands!
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Yah I know what you mean on those pocket cams, I've seen some of the shots that come from them and I swear you'd not be able to pick them apart from SLRs. The skill some people have is mind boggling.
If you ever want to get a fairly cheap D40, adorama has them used for under 400 bucks. Not bad if you have an arsenal of lenses in your inventory
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Some of my "best" lightning photos ( [link] for example) were taken on an Olympus pocket camera. I just set it to "party" mode and it automatically decided to give me 4-second exposures. I can only imagine the results from a similar camera from Nikon would be overwhelming.
I'll keep an eye out!
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I'm impressed 
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We live and learn, I guess. 
Thanks for your kind words. I suspect you're probably right, but I envy you your winter, it's 40C here at the moment. 
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Yeah, it was minus 40 degrees a couple of weeks ago. I'd much rather have the +'ve than the -'ve temp myself
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I'd be happy somewhere inbetween.
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Olympus E-510. A housebrick mounted on a tripod would create similar results.
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that bad? ill hafta try sometime
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Nicely framed!
Such beautiful bolts, I can't take my eyes off them so I hardly notice the noise
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Canon 5D sport... noise it don't know. I'm told it can see in the dark
This is a belter. You have to get a single straight tower and call it Beam me up Scottie! Hey lightning goes from the earth to the cloud.. wiki it!
My star trail shot worked. stay posted.
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actually, lightening can either go from cloud to cloud, cloud to ground, or ground to cloud.
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or cloud to Datzoid! I'll do some research myself thanks ryan!
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Heh, Beam Me Up Scotty.
I'm stuck with this junk-of-junk for the moment, but I'll be looking into a Canon once I have some funds behind me (and no bills in front of me).
Awesome! I look forward to spectacular trailage!
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