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Sunday, June 30, 2013

Cape Cod Thunderstorm

Thunderstorm over the Bay, seen from East Sandwich on June 24, 2013. Had to work on the technique for a while, but the storm was obliging and the air between us and it was clear. Winning formula is to have a long shutter speed (e.g. 30 seconds) to give the greatest chance of catching a flash, but a high f-stop (e.g. f-10) to catch detail in the lightning (and so that the hand-held 30-second exposure didn't having moving, blurry, weak-lit foreground objects).

These have had no processing - JPGs off of my Rebel T2i and EF 28mm 1:1.8. I have RAW copies which I can play with more later.



The following two were earlier attempts with a low f-stop so they lose detail of the lightning, but show more context of the storm over the water.  Similar shots with bigger lightning strikes just washed out (though they show some interesting reflection artifacts, I think, in the lens).