Lightning Shot, CC Please.

Brian

Brian

Well-Known Member
I caught this off my back deck the other day. I'd love some feedback to dial in my lightning photos. It seems to me that the bright sky on the left distracts from the lightning bolt. But frankly, I don't know the best way to fix it. Crop? Also, the foreground is REALLY green this spring. Would you enhance that? I'd love to get some feedback and see what you guys think. Thanks.

 
Ben Egbert

Ben Egbert

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Staff member
This appears to have lots of room to pull up the foreground shadows. I would start there and then decide if the right side was still too bright
 
Ben Egbert

Ben Egbert

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By enhance, I mean bring up the shadows, the saturation appears ok. I would also darken the bright bit of sky just a tad. Just so you know, I don't have a lightning shot, so my comments are more from a viewer than one with good experience with lightning shots.
 
Ben Egbert

Ben Egbert

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I downloaded your image and gave it a try. I used Topaz Exposure to bring up shadows, Other methods will work as well. I then selected the light part of the sky and applied a darker curve. Finally I cropped it as you see.

DSC_5149-2-XL ben.jpg
 
Brian

Brian

Well-Known Member
Ben Egbert said:
By enhance, I mean bring up the shadows, the saturation appears ok. I would also darken the bright bit of sky just a tad. Just so you know, I don't have a lightning shot, so my comments are more from a viewer than one with good experience with lightning shots.
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Thanks Ben. I appreciate it.
 
AlanLichty

AlanLichty

Moderator
Nice catch - not a phenomena I have much experience with beyond seeing other people's images of them. I think Ben is on the right track for this with the foreground and suggestions for the skies.
 
AlanLichty

AlanLichty

Moderator
Brian said:
How about this? I really need to learn how to edit. I can fly a plane, but LR/PS are still kicking my butt.
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Just like flying - LR/PS takes practice and the more the better. For the cloud layers try tweaking the clarity and texture sliders just a bit and you can tease more details out of them.
 
Brian

Brian

Well-Known Member
AlanLichty said:
Just like flying - LR/PS takes practice and the more the better. For the cloud layers try tweaking the clarity and texture sliders just a bit and you can tease more details out of them.
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Perfect. Thanks Alan. I see what you mean.
 
JimFox

JimFox

Moderator
Staff member
Hey Brian, I agree the main issue you identified is the open sky on the left horizon is too bright and distracts from the lightning bolt. I do like the brighter foreground too, that's a nice change.

Can you upload the Raw here? That way others can edit it and show you what they did. Ben has instructions on how to do a low res Raw for Critique.

On a side note, I will be back in Colorado in about 4 weeks, let's try to arrange a few hours together and I can go over some easy basic layer masking for exactly like situations like this in Photoshop. I can't help you with LightRoom, but in Photoshop it's a breeze once you see it done.
 
Brian

Brian

Well-Known Member
JimFox said:
Hey Brian, I agree the main issue you identified is the open sky on the left horizon is too bright and distracts from the lightning bolt. I do like the brighter foreground too, that's a nice change.

Can you upload the Raw here? That way others can edit it and show you what they did. Ben has instructions on how to do a low res Raw for Critique.

On a side note, I will be back in Colorado in about 4 weeks, let's try to arrange a few hours together and I can go over some easy basic layer masking for exactly like situations like this in Photoshop. I can't help you with LightRoom, but in Photoshop it's a breeze once you see it done.
Click to expand...

I would really appreciate that Jim. Thanks for the offer. I'll try and get it uploaded.
 
Ben Egbert

Ben Egbert

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Now your cooking, I like this one much better.

Thanks for adding the link Jim, I should have done it, but was out getting a haircut. (I know, what did they cut?)
 
Ben Egbert

Ben Egbert

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Staff member
Ok, here is one I did from the DNG. I made a dark and light version and merged them using Jim's method (here)

https://www.focalworld.com/index.php?articles/ps-simple-luminosity-mask.17/

This helped in the bright sky area, but there is not much detail to bring out. I ended up doing some burning to further darken it.

I then did my normal processing which I will describe if asked, but since I use Topaz, it may not help much. It mostly consists of using some more shadow recovery and then color and contrast. All can be done in Photoshop with other methods.

The left side of the sky was still too bright so I did a crop that eliminated most of it. Perhaps others can do more to salvage that area.


ben 1.jpg
 
AlanLichty

AlanLichty

Moderator
Another variant for edits. Almost all of the light balance and color adjustments were done in Lightroom. In PS I created a new layer and then used Topaz Studio modules AI Clear, Precision Contrast, and HSL Color Tuning for the final tweaks.

DSC_5149_2.jpg
 
Ben Egbert

Ben Egbert

Forum Helper
Staff member
Nice one Alan, you use Topaz for selective edits. I typically do global edits, not because they are the best way, but because I am too dumb to do selective.
 
Kyle Jones

Kyle Jones

Moderator
Here's my take. Mostly some curves adjustments in different parts of the image. I wanted to bring out some of the texture in the sky. I also lightened the sky on the right side to try balancing out the tones on either side of the strike a little bit.
_850.jpg
 
AlanLichty

AlanLichty

Moderator
Ben Egbert said:
Nice one Alan, you use Topaz for selective edits. I typically do global edits, not because they are the best way, but because I am too dumb to do selective.
Click to expand...
I have my own presets in Topaz Studio for the modules I referenced. I had purchased the standalone equivalents long before Topaz came out with their Studio product and they gave me free upgrades to their new versions to use inside of Studio. Studio just gave me a way to make a preset out of what used to be several different processes/layers to handle in PS.
 
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