In perspective

Gallery: LandscapePosted April 8, 2011327 views15 comments

A very distant thunderstorm (no idea how far exactly, but several kilometers at least) gave me the opportunity to include the night sky.
For this image 4 images were blended using the 'Lighten' blending mode to get a few thunderbolts and lit-up skies in one frame to maximize the storm as the SS had to be less than 30 seconds to capture the stars as dots and not streaks. In the blend I choose the sky with a falling star streak as the background image and masked the stars during the blend.

I used my 24-105/4 for this as I was also making frames @ 105mm, but in hindsight I should have used my 16-35/2.8 for this scene to be able to lower the ISO for maximum IQ... it was late you know...

Nxai Pan National Park, Botswana
Camera Model Canon EOS-1D Mark IV
Shutter Speed 30 Sec.
Aperture Value f/4
ISO Speed 2000
Lens EF24-105mm f/4L IS USM @ 24mm
FF

Comments

15 comments

Comment posted by Joseph Balcken on April 8, 2011 at 8:21 AM

Great concept, Vincent. It is a unique image for me. The amount of noise is unfortunate, but I like what this image has to say.

Registered on November 29, 2009, 48 Posts, 249 Comments

Comment posted by Jorne de Bruin on April 8, 2011 at 9:03 AM

Superb image Vincent, love the Thunderstorm combined with the night sky here! Especially the falling star is a great addition. There is just so much going on in this image, really great. To bad about the noise but still good stuff!

Registered on June 26, 2008, 178 Posts, 2136 Comments

Comment posted by Vincent Grafhorst on April 8, 2011 at 9:27 AM

RE: the noise; though I could have shot this with f/2.8 at ISO 1000 which would have resulted in less noise, ISO2000 is still very usable on the Mk4. I printed this 20x30" and it looks great.

Registered on February 24, 2006, 504 Posts, 7203 Comments

Comment posted by Zack Clothier on April 8, 2011 at 9:33 AM

Nice idea Vincent, I don't think I've ever seen a thunderstorm and stars all in the same picture, let alone shooting stars on top of that! Have you tried any noise reduction software on this? It is amazing how much noise you can remove with some of these programs if used correctly. I prefer Noise Ninja but there are plenty of good ones out there many of which offer free trials to download. There seems to a light spot around the shooting star in the lower left, only visible in the large version, not sure if this is a result of the blend or not but you may want to take a look there.

Registered on January 28, 2010, 343 Posts, 2257 Comments

Comment posted by Guy Tal on April 8, 2011 at 9:41 AM

Very primal and dramatic. I'd consier cloning out the plane trails but other than that, I love it.

Guy

Registered on November 1, 2003, 566 Posts, 15507 Comments

Comment posted by Bill Chambers on April 8, 2011 at 9:42 AM

Very nice Vincent - I especially like the shooting start streaking through the night sky.

Registered on April 10, 2005, 753 Posts, 21216 Comments

Comment posted by Koveh Tavakkol on April 8, 2011 at 11:18 AM

A beautiful night shot Vincent!

Registered on September 1, 2009, 41 Posts, 608 Comments

Comment posted by Nancy Lea Sandy on April 8, 2011 at 11:49 AM

I really like this; the storm, the stars, the silence. A great philosophical piece--seems to say our little problems are insignificant in the larger scheme of things. Nicely done

Registered on January 24, 2011, 576 Posts, 6942 Comments

Comment posted by Ken Canning on April 8, 2011 at 12:24 PM

A very intriguing image with lots of drama. I enjoyed scrolling through the large version and seeing all of the details and sctivity in this image. Not sure if NR has been applied to it yet, but it would seem the color noise, at least, could be somewhat diminished with a dose of NR.

Registered on February 10, 2004, 88 Posts, 549 Comments

Comment posted by Stan Rose on April 8, 2011 at 3:49 PM

Simple but effective--i like it! Might crop just a bit off the bottom, and defintely try some NR.

Registered on September 15, 2005, 836 Posts, 17099 Comments

Comment posted by Tony Kuyper on April 8, 2011 at 10:27 PM

Fascinating perspective with the clouds and stars in one frame. Lots of drama in the lightening.

Registered on November 1, 2003, 364 Posts, 22328 Comments

Comment posted by Morris McClung on April 8, 2011 at 11:07 PM

Well, I'll be trying this in a couple of months when the thunderstorms start around here!

Lighting and stars. What a fantastic combo.

Registered on May 7, 2007, 670 Posts, 19650 Comments

Comment posted by David Chauvin on April 9, 2011 at 5:40 AM

That's a wild combination!

Registered on August 5, 2004, 1007 Posts, 5595 Comments

Comment posted by Steve Balke on April 9, 2011 at 6:21 PM

This is a very creative shot, Vincent, both in concept and in implementation. Lovely result too. I routinely run NR (and some exposure adjustment and sharpening) on all of my 1D Mark IV images. I've tried Neat Image, Dfine and Topaz Denoise 5 for NR. These days I'm using Denoise 5 the most. The eye is so sensitive to color noise in particular that running a NR program, even at a very low NR removal level, looks like a good idea to me.

Registered on June 18, 2009, 229 Posts, 2915 Comments

Comment posted by Rafael Rojas on April 10, 2011 at 3:42 PM

This is quite special Vincent...it really lies when seen as a thumbnail, I like the idea of putting together the storm with the wide open sky...kind of connection of forces and really shows the dynamics of the atmosphere very well, set against that infinity of space. Really well done...

Registered on March 1, 2009, 56 Posts, 623 Comments