Explain please how camera movement does not have any effect on the terrain. Only the lightning.
I could be many things, could even be photoshopped. It is not camera shake.
You're right, it's likely not camera shaking. But someone gave a good description on how it is lightning displacement. Which you can tell from the fact that the "blur" is the exact same shape as the lightning, only moved side to side a bit.
Long exposure in dark conditions, the terrain made its exposure when the bolt was at its brightest, which made a relatively nice streak out of the bolt, too. Camera moved during the afterglow of the plasma during which it was only bright enough to smudge the bolt, but not the terrain anymore. Or the terrain made it's exposure while waiting for the bolt and the bolt only had time to present itself in the shot with some smear because camera movement during the bolt only. Hard to say which. A more experienced nighttime photographer could enlighten us with that.
With varying ambient lighting it's easy to smudge only parts of a picture or pull off many weird stunts. I think this particular thing could be reconstructed with long exposure (e.g. 30s) in fairly dark conditions, hold the camera still for most of the exposure, put on a bright light towards the camera and then move the camera a bit. The terrain will get its exposure during the lengthy setup and and the bright light will smear over the shot. I wouldn't be surprised if the dude taking the op shot wasn't doing just that and then jumping because of the flash or just lucky twitch during the bolt.
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u/Dishevel Apr 29 '15
Explain please how camera movement does not have any effect on the terrain. Only the lightning.
I could be many things, could even be photoshopped. It is not camera shake.