Central Indiana Lightning 8-24-11

There was a heck of a light show from a slow-moving storm system around Indianapolis, Indiana last night.

1.

Scott, I was trying to shoot that same storm with limited success. What setting do you typically use? I was trying to do 5 or 6 second exposures with some luck, but nothing to write home about. It was such a bright storm.

These are amazing.

Nice captures...2 and 7 are my favs!

jwrichte wrote in post #13166838
Scott, I was trying to shoot that same storm with limited success. What setting do you typically use? I was trying to do 5 or 6 second exposures with some luck, but nothing to write home about. It was such a bright storm.

The EXIF data is intact on the photos; also listed below:

Images 1, 2, 6:

Camera Model: Canon EOS 7D
Lens: EF-S17-55mm f/2.8 IS USM
Focal Length: 18mm
Aperture: f/4.5
Exposure Time: 15.000 s
ISO equiv: 100
Exposure: Manual

Images 3, 4:

Camera Model: Canon EOS 7D
Lens: EF-S17-55mm f/2.8 IS USM
Focal Length: 18mm
Aperture: f/8.0
Exposure Time: 30.000 s
ISO equiv: 100
Exposure: Manual

Image 5:

Camera Model: Canon EOS 50D
Lens: EF-S10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 USM
Focal Length: 19mm
Aperture: f/8.0
Exposure Time: 30.000 s
ISO equiv: 100
Exposure Mode: Manual


Image 7:

Camera Model: Canon EOS 50D
Lens: EF-S10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 USM
Focal Length: 10mm
Aperture: f/8.0
Exposure Time: 30.000 s
ISO equiv: 100
Exposure Mode: Manual


The strike in number 7 scared the bejeezus out of me. There were many strikes that fingered through the sky directly over and behind me. Of course, like an idiot, I'm parked right next to a telephone pole. So after that strike I bailed into the car and just used the one remote I had to fire off one of the cameras from the relative safety of the car. I had the 7d mounted on my tripod ball head and the 50d mounted to 1 tripod leg with a superclamp and magic arm.

I've got an intervalometer coming soon, so I plan to use that for lightning shots and just let it continuously shoot 30 sec exposures. I've just sold my 7D and am trying to sell my 50D, so I'll have just one body to use in the future. It was really nice having 2 bodies with wide lenses pointed at different areas of the sky to catch strikes in different areas and miss fewer shots.

One of these days I'm gonna play around and use the 70-200 or 300 f/2.8 and see if I can get some close-ups of strikes. I know it's a long shot and will take some perseverance, but could be really cool.

The other reason for using fixed 15 or 30 second (or whatever) exposures is to put them together in a time lapse. I put the shots from the 50D/10-22mm combo in a short time lapse and it was pretty neat. I'll try to get that posted up on my personal web site (wscottrichardson.com)​, where, incidentally, there are some more lightning shots I've done in the past.

This particular storm was perfect to shoot since it was a VERY slow moving system and the lightning was fingering out 25-30 miles ahead of it or so. I was checking the radar on my iphone and saw the cells were in downtown Indianapolis or just out west and I was located about 20 miles east of downtown. I was able to shoot for almost 2 full hours before the rain finally hit my location.

All in all it was just a perfect setup for lightning photography that night; those don't come along too terribly often so you have to take full advantage when you get the opportunity.

Also forgot...there were lots of nice little loops in many of the photos. For example, here's a tight crop of the loop in #3:

Scott, we probably live within just a few miles of one another. You may be a bit more east but I am in McCordsville. It was a really impressive storm! I dont have my original image, but I scrapped this one off of my facebook wall so you will have to forgive the quality but here is a shot of the exact same storm that I grabbed from my front porch.

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jwrichte wrote in post #13175559
Scott, we probably live within just a few miles of one another. You may be a bit more east but I am in McCordsville. It was a really impressive storm! I dont have my original image, but I scrapped this one off of my facebook wall so you will have to forgive the quality but here is a shot of the exact same storm that I grabbed from my front porch.

Yep, you're just a few miles north of me and it looks like you had a nice show as well. Nice shot...I'm glad I wasn't the only fool out taking pictures of it!