Lightning Attempt

Here is one I took last year.

Canon 40D
30 sec exposure
ISO 100
f/8

Right after this my camera blew over from the wind. Dust storm in the background. 1st of 2 storms that hit us that night.

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Wow that is a great shot!

Thanks, cost me $400.00 to get my camera fixed after this.

Very cool shot.

Joe Ravenstein wrote in post #10272625
Nice shots! I recently got a tip on a AEO Lightning trigger that fires the shutter when it "senses" an impending lightning strike in the area. Most storms approach from the southwest here so its easy to have the camera pointed in the "right" direction. I am buying one from Ebay as soon as paypal confesses they have my funds transfer LOL

Seems like a gimmick to me. A successful lightning strike photo usually requires a longer exposure, and one where you opened the shutter before the lightning appeared.

http://www.aeophoto.co​m/

Really...how is that going to capture a well lit scene from lightning with a quick shutter speed?

J T wrote in post #10518824
Seems like a gimmick to me. A successful lightning strike photo usually requires a longer exposure, and one where you opened the shutter before the lightning appeared.

http://www.aeophoto.co​m/

Really...how is that going to capture a well lit scene from lightning with a quick shutter speed?

JT;
I believe it will trigger the shutter, within 0.1 milliseconds of "sensing" a strike, but the actual shutter duration is whatever you have the camera set for.
$130-ish, that may be a future buy gadget for me once I'm done with other higher priority gear.

I did mine the "cheap way", set camera for continuous shooting - activate via remote, take and scan hundreds of shots, and keep the keepers.
That auto-lightning detect device would basically "keep the keepers" automatically in a sense, big time saver.

Here is one I got in Daytona Beach yesterday. This is my backyard. It was crazy here for about an hour. Loads o' fun but my wife is still calling me an idiot. Hard to argue with her on that one.

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Wow those shots look great. I've kept my eye out, but haven't found an opportunity to try this. These photos make me want to go storm chasing.

Well, I shot a few last night, my very first shots of lightning. Never shot lightning before.

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Every time I attempt a lightning shot it comes out blurry. If I am taking a shot in complete darkness, how do I focus on the lightning? Assume that I am at f6 or so, my ISO has been around 200. I am missing the shots!

Rambis8 wrote in post #10568921
Every time I attempt a lightning shot it comes out blurry. If I am taking a shot in complete darkness, how do I focus on the lightning? Assume that I am at f6 or so, my ISO has been around 200. I am missing the shots!

You don't focus on the lightening!

ISO 100 or 200 is fine, but IMHO, I wouldn't go any higher than 400. f/8 or higher(smaller) would be better

Since it is dark your shutter speeds are going to be slow so you will need a tripod, in which case then if your lens has Image Stabilization(IS) you will want to turn that off as well.

Whatever lens you are using you will want to turn off the AF. Next you'll focus on a distant object or light that you can see, or manually set the focus to infinity. Depending on the lens, if you focus to infinity you might have to back off just a touch; The EF-S 18-55mm kit lens is one that you will have to do that with otherwise it will be slightly out of focus.

Use a remote shutter switch and set the Camera in full (M)anual mode to Bulb. This way you can trip the shutter using the remote and hold it for 4 or 5 seconds, or even longer if you like until you have captured some lightening. There have been many times where I have let it stay open 15 seconds or longer

Daylight lightening pictures require a little more luck since you obviously can't just hold the shutter open without blowing out the picture. So what I do instead is set the camera to ISO 100, f/9 to f/11 and adjust the exposure accordingly, and then set the camera for high speed continuous shooting. Still using a tripod, start shooting and hopefully if luck will have it, one or more of the shots will have captured some lightening. Just be prepared to waist a lot of shots. I'll typically shoot in 4 to 5 shot bursts.
It's all a matter of good timing, which as luck will usually have it a nice bolt of lightening will strike when I am allowing the camera to rest a bit.

If the lightening in the storm is frequent enough you can almost time it between strikes, but you cannot always tell what general area the next strike will be. Using a short focal length wide angle lens will help by covering a lot of area.

anyone else notice the screaming face in the clouds in the second photo

if you look at the top of the bolt where it meets the clouds, go up and to the right a bit. you can see a break in the clouds with some darker clouds surrounding it. the break in the clouds looks like a screaming face. that's actually the first thing i noticed in that photo.

Rick Denham wrote in post #10576579
anyone else notice the screaming face in the clouds in the second photo

if you look at the top of the bolt where it meets the clouds, go up and to the right a bit. you can see a break in the clouds with some darker clouds surrounding it. the break in the clouds looks like a screaming face. that's actually the first thing i noticed in that photo.

Yeah wow...weird. Didn't notice it till you pointed it out.