My first attempt at capturing lightning.

[350Z]

Wow, that's more complicated than I thought. After about 100 tries, this is the best I could come up with:

http://mywebpages.comcast.net/2k350z/photo/44.jpg

Thoughts?

[rssfhs]

I've never tried, but I've read a bit about it. It seems you need a B mode, which isn't available on most digital cameras. You open the shutter using a cable release, wait for the lighting and then close it after it strikes. The longest shutter speed on my G3 is 15 seconds, so It would be kind of difficult I think. Maybe with a digital SLR...

[SoCal69]

Personally, I have never tried shooting lightning, although I would like to, but here is So Cal, we rarely get storms, much less lightning. I was browsing Jasenh7's gallery in one of the other threads and saw his VERY NICE lightning shots and he directed me to an older thread on the subject:

http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=3793#16293

[350Z]

socal69 wrote:
Personally, I have never tried shooting lightning, although I would like to, but here is So Cal, we rarely get storms, much less lightning. I was browsing Jasenh7's gallery in one of the other threads and saw his VERY NICE lightning shots and he directed me to an older thread on the subject:

http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=3793#16293

Wow, those are great shots.. makes me wish for more thunderstorms so I can give it another go (hopefully with less trees in the way). I was using a 1'6 exposure time, ISO 100 for the shots I got. Although it's nothing special, I like how the lighting came out on this shot of one of my cars:

http://mywebpages.comcast.net/2k350z/misc/car.jpg

[Stoneh]

not bad effort, i tried to capture lightning, hard work!! and frustrating

[jasenh7]

Yes, it's very frustrating. As I was saying in another thread the hardest part though is finding the perfect conditions to shoot then it's all patience from there on.

Here's the settings I was using:

Tv( Shutter Speed ) -5
Av( Aperture Value ) - 8.0
Exposure Compensation - +3 1/3
White Balance - Auto
Drive Mode - Single-frame shooting

The great thing about digital photography is being able to play with the settings real time. I'd tried night shots with 35mm film and had to try all kinds of settings and take notes which shots were which, then develop the film and see what worked and what didn't so I could do it again later.

My lightning shots I played with the settings until I was getting the results I wanted then proceeded to take 5 second shot after 5 second shot. I'd delete the shots that I didn't get anything.

Where's patience come in? Right about where your shutter closes and a beautiful bolt comes down and you missed it. Or when one pops right before you hit the trigger or out of frame. There was a good deal of cussing associated with shooting those shots.

Or you end up with a shot like this:

http://www.gixxerjasen.com/images/lightning/leftlightning.jpg

I think I ended up with about 30 decent shots by the end of the night and the ones I shared were my favorites. I did have this one bolt so intense, bright and close that the image came out extremely overexposed!!!

http://www.gixxerjasen.com/images/lightning/brightlightning.jpg

Anyway, if you have any questions, please feel free to let me know.

[350Z]

jasenh7 wrote:
Yes, it's very frustrating. As I was saying in another thread the hardest part though is finding the perfect conditions to shoot then it's all patience from there on.

Here's the settings I was using:

Tv( Shutter Speed ) -5
Av( Aperture Value ) - 8.0
Exposure Compensation - +3 1/3
White Balance - Auto
Drive Mode - Single-frame shooting

The great thing about digital photography is being able to play with the settings real time. I'd tried night shots with 35mm film and had to try all kinds of settings and take notes which shots were which, then develop the film and see what worked and what didn't so I could do it again later.

My lightning shots I played with the settings until I was getting the results I wanted then proceeded to take 5 second shot after 5 second shot. I'd delete the shots that I didn't get anything.

Where's patience come in? Right about where your shutter closes and a beautiful bolt comes down and you missed it. Or when one pops right before you hit the trigger or out of frame. There was a good deal of cussing associated with shooting those shots.

Or you end up with a shot like this:

http://www.gixxerjasen.com/images/lightning/leftlightning.jpg

I think I ended up with about 30 decent shots by the end of the night and the ones I shared were my favorites. I did have this one bolt so intense, bright and close that the image came out extremely overexposed!!!

http://www.gixxerjasen.com/images/lightning/brightlightning.jpg

Anyway, if you have any questions, please feel free to let me know.

Thanks for the reply, Jasen! Yes, there was a great deal of cussing involved in my shots as well. I woke up about halfway through the storm for starters, ran upstairs in my night clothes (slipped on some shoes) with the camera and tripod and got started. I sat there for a good hour and a half, clicking away. I missed so many a shot, but had way too much tree cover in the way for anyone to tell if I got a good shot anyway.

Maybe next time I will be in a better location and ready to go. In the meantime, I'll work on something else. :)

[jasenh7]

Yes, finding a good location where your safety isn't compromised is key. For the shots above I was on my way home and the clouds in front of me were dancing with the lightning. I came in the door of my house, grabbed my gear, kissed the wife and headed back out. Traveled about 10 miles out in front of the storm (fortunately I was able to correctly predict it's track) and got set up in a nice area clear of obstructions.

Truely it seems to be about 90% chance and 10% planning though. My wife wanted to go out last night and shoot but the storms while fairly active were producing few visible bolts (mostly just flickers in the clouds) and were already past us with the sun still being too high in the sky. We'll catch another one someday soon hopefully.