Palouse Falls Lightning by Gary Luhm

Palouse Falls Lightning by Gary Luhm

Lightning strikes pummeled the Palouse in evening light, me with a ringside seat, perched on a cliff above Palouse Falls. I set up a multiple-exposure shot in fading light with a 14mm lens, then turned my attention to the light show in the sky. I tilted the camera up a bit, and shot frame after frame as the lightning grew close and skies darkened. Most of my lightning exposures were 15 or 20 sec with no noise reduction. Many of them captured a single or several lightning bolts, some none at all. I quit when the storm moved too close, escaping to the campground before the rain moved in. In Lightroom, I selected two of the first exposures for HDR, then used Merge Panorama to seamless combine it with a early lightning shot. Then in Photoshop, I layered in two additional lightning strikes. I finished in Lightroom with some dogging and burning. Full description on my website at: http://garyluhm.net/lightning-at-palouse-falls/>/a>

Gary Luhm: Photos