Cloud to Cloud Lightning

©JP Parmley

5DMIII, 24-70mm 2.8L, 20 sec, f/11, ISO 4000

Last night we had a small thunder cell move through that was producing a little bit of cloud to cloud lightning. We have not had any "Big" bolts lately like we have shown in previous posts.  Using the techniques from earlier posts did not produce any images due to the lack of light from the larger bolts.

So what can you do? Increase the shutter, open the aperture, or increase the ISO.  Well, since I was already at 20 and 30 seconds exposures and experimenting with increased apertures blew the clouds out, I decided to leverage the higher ISO capabilities of the 5DMIII.

These shots were take at 20 and 30 seconds at f/11 and ISO 2500 and 4000.  The ISO allowed the capture of the smaller lightning bursts inside the clouds and captured the stars as well.  I ran these through Lightroom 4 for noise reduction and cropping since the lightning was so small and far away.

5DMIII, 24-70mm 2.8L, 30 sec, f/11, ISO 2500

5DMIII, 24-70mm 2.8L, 30 sec, f/11, ISO 2500

Enjoy,

JP

Lightroom Vintage Effects

©JP Parmley

In just about all cases photographers are using software tools to enhance digital images.  While these tools never replace proper technique, you can achieve some stunning results with the tools available to you.

The above picture that was taken with a Canon 5D Mark III, 24-70mm 2.8L, with an off camera flash to the left.  The picture was taken at ISO 125, 1/200th, f/7.1.  I used the following steps to create the vintage picture.

1) Imported into Lightroom 4
2) Applied a saved preset
3) Made some minor adjustments to the exposure
4) Ran picture through Portrait Professional for minor touch-ups
5) Used Photoshop for minor Dodge and Burn on the dress

The key to getting this look is the preset in Lightroom.  After playing around with other pictures, I saved the settings as a preset.  I describe how to save presets in the April 4, 2013 post if you need step by step directions.

Here are the settings to this preset.

These settings should get you real close to moving the original picture to the final version.  Depending on the light source, you will have to play with the white balance to get the look you are going for.

There are lots of free presets that you can also download.  Simple searches should provide you with a wide variety of presets that you can use, edit and make your own.


Enjoy.

JP