Lightning

[HCS]

We had a sort of a storm yesterday evening/night. I had never tried to capture lightning before, so i had to try. Shot from my attic, through the window. Opened the shutter @ F8 ISO 400 and waited for a strike. This one worked. I took almost 30 shots, for some i had to wait so long for a strike that the exposure almost was enough already 

This one worked, sort of. Had to crop and work on the contrast of the lightning a bit.

Hope you like and please, if you have any, share them along.

[EDIT] hmmm ... it seem that jpeg compression has destroyed the thinner lightning strikes a bit. It looks much nicer from the RAW. Interested what advice i could use to improve on this part.

[pluton]

Maybe increase the pixel dimensions of  the jpeg?  Try doubling it.

[Erik Lund]

I like it As is

[Akira]

The mother nature offered a nice drawing on the canvas you provided.    I also like the compensating color of the sky and the sodium (?) lightings in the foreground.

[Jakov Minić]

Hans, this is really well executed!
The lightning looks like it's upside down

[John Geerts]

Lovely. Looks like a river on a map.

[David H. Hartman]

The problem with the fine or thin lightning may be caused by down sizing and multiple JPG compression. I'd try sizing it and sharpening it for the exact size that it will be displayed on an internet page. I'd try down sampling it in stages with light, small radius sharpening before each step. When sized for upload I'd covert to jpg saving it at 100 or highest quality. The site where the photo is hosted will probably save it with lower quality but it won't suffer from the errors of double compression as the first compensation will be light.

Experiment you might find a way to display the image with the quality it deserves.

Best,

Dave

[HCS]

Thanks all for stopping by.

Keith and David, i'll give your suggestions a try.

Erik, Akira, Jakov and John, thanks for the kind comments. I really appreciate that.