I got this amazingly well timed shot yesterday in NYC from the Staten Island Ferry. Hi! I I would love some CC on processing. It is getting there, but it still doesn’t feel quite right. Also there is but of a sharpness issue. The autofocus was just slightly off. The lighting change its focus point I think. I am scared to sharpen it more because I really don’t want it to be noisy. I really could use any suggestions you have. Shot with a Fuji XT30 with 18-55 lens. F4 34.3mm 1/480 sec ISO 160
Pull up your whites, increase contrast and add a gradient filter to the upper left-hand corner, I’m the gradient filter increase the shadows and blacks a touch and increase the whites that should increase the visibility of the lightning bolt
I agree with Joe's suggestions, but I pushed my version just a little bit more than he did.
I used Levels to bring the whitest pixels all the way to the left edge of the histogram, then Curves to add contrast, mostly with a heavily right-weighted S-curve. Then a little bit of sharpening to account for the reduced image resolution in the relatively small size here. Avoid anything that will add local contrast (Structure or Definition) as this will add a dark halo around the lightning bolt.
Not many much i can do with JPEG files.
Thank you so much for your help! I had started doing some of those things but I think I was afraid to go that far! This really helps!
It’s just a digital file as long as you don’t destroy the original you can experiment and go as crazy as you want
I looked at the original and thought, well that's ok why change it. Then I looked at the image from Phillip and I can see the whites coming up increasing the depth and dimension of the image. Just shows, experimenting and not being quite satisfied can pay off - it's digital so I guess we just Ctrl-Z if it doesn't work. Nice shot BTW.
I kept it simple. I never care for a gradient sky off to one corner as it never seems natural. In your photo it is dark at the top LHS.
I added a symmetrical/balancing gradient to the RHS top corner. Added a further gradient to the top for a little more storm drama. Adjusted the whites up a lot.
Erika, noise is usually only an issue where it can be easily seen, like skies. The simple solution is to selectively sharpen the architecture with masking, and perhaps doing a touch of noise reduction to the sky only so it flattens out any possible noise.
Hi.
I'm a little late with this comment because I joined the group today.
If it is the lighting that is the most important in your pic then I would change it to a vertical photograph. So much more it doesn't have to be edited, in my opinion. More contrast and other changes can make it to look more post-processed than a straight from the camera pic.
The following adjustments I made with Capture One 12: crop to a vertical photograph, contrast +13, HDR shadow +50, clarity +13, structure +13 and vignetting +1,04.
If I pull up the clarity and structure much more in post processing, two more flashes will turn up in your photo. Is this image a photo montage or have you erased lighting from it?
It is a fantastic photograph and I wish to someday be successful to capture such a photo with my camera too.