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Douglas Bolt
09-02-2012, 05:24 PM
Canon 10D, Tamron 17-35@35, .3s, f32. PP: Screen blend on luminosity darks and Multiply blend on lights (sky) both at ~30% opacity.

I'm particularly interested in your impression of the color balance. Maybe the SA contributors and others, who are familiar with what the Amphitheater should look like during the "regularity" scheduled afternoon thunder storms, will chime in.

I have been working on putting together three lightening strikes into a single image, but I'm not satisfied with the color balance. The lightening strikes were captured by repeatedly tripping the shutter and then discarding images that did not contain a strike. There were lots of strikes. Based on the filenames, success was about 10%. Quite a show, both visual and auditory.

dankearl
09-02-2012, 08:21 PM
I can't comment on the color but getting the strike is very nice work.

Sarah Jessup
09-04-2012, 07:24 AM
I can't comment with authority on the color balance, having been here only once, but it doesn't seem off. It is in keeping with my memory of the place.
A truly "striking" depiction. I would be happy to have done this.
Sarah

Roman Kurywczak
09-04-2012, 03:19 PM
Love the strike Douglas! I might tone it down overall just a touch.......but a very nice job on this!

Morkel Erasmus
09-04-2012, 03:20 PM
Colours looks spot on for "Summer in the 'Berg", Douglas! Good job on the strike. Did you perhaps capture the rest of the mountains left and right to incorporate into a pano stitch?
Were you staying at the Royal Natal National Park?

Douglas Bolt
09-04-2012, 04:51 PM
Thanks for the kind comments. It is probably the most beautiful spot I've found, so far, on this wonderful planet, at least in my opinion.

Yes, Morkel, we had one of the cabins from where this photo was taken. Our British friends told us what time to expect the thunder echos to begin. I can't recall the exact time now, but they also told us of a more certain way to know when it would be time to listen for the thunder - gin & tonic time! Worked both evenings were there.



And, yes, I did do a few panos from this same spot. The clouds are blown out in a portion of the 360, but it still reminds me fondly of the experience. I'll post one for those who might enjoy the memories more than the photo.

Roman, I'm not clear what sort of toning down you envision. Granted, I did enhance the storm clouds with a Multiply blend layer, but did nothing extra to the lightening.

I finished the three strike version of the same thunderstorm. The image above makes up all but the two extra lightening strikes. I'll post it shortly.

Douglas Bolt
09-04-2012, 05:43 PM
Here's a 360 pano of the Amphitheater showing the cabin. Pardon the poor processing. A much better perspective of the scene is an image using much less than 360 and showing the mountains to the left of the cabin, but without the cabin. Also, it doesn't show all the tracks of poor blending. I'll post it as a separate thread tomorrow.

Andrew McLachlan
09-05-2012, 07:05 PM
Nice strike and mountain scene. Agree on toning it down a little. Looks like a great place to stay!

Mark Wiseman
09-11-2012, 04:47 AM
Hi Douglas,
I like your image and it shows great timing with the lightning bolt. A typical summer seen.
Best wishes and TFS,
Mark.

Douglas Bolt
09-12-2012, 07:16 AM
Mark,

I can't take any credit for timing the shot. I just pushed the shutter button repeatedly and was lucky on several shots. Didn't need to be all that lucky because there were lots of lightening strikes. I caught a strike on about 10% of the images. I was told that one can expect lightening and resulting thunder can be expected in the late afternoon in the Amphitheater. The thunder was most impressive. It seemed to bounce back and forth from the surrounding mountains.


doug