Lightening 21 July 2010

With the heat of the summer months we can expect pop-up thunderstorms. We never now how strong they will be, and how much lightening and rain they will bring. Usually they fizzle out as the night progresses, but not tonight, not this storm. Lots and lots of frequent Cloud to Cloud and Cloud to Ground Lightening. I would still be out there, only if it weren't for the torrential blowing down pour of rain. Nonetheless, I did manage to capture a couple shots as it was approaching and before the rains hit. One strike was extremely close, very loud and blinding bright.

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Did some adjustment with Photoshop Lightroom on these so the bolts of lightening don't look blown out

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Nice shots

Nice shots...can you provide some tips on how to capture lighting?

kezug wrote in post #10593113
Nice shots...can you provide some tips on how to capture lighting?

Thank you.

Night time shots of lightening are relatively easy.
Use a remote shutter switch if you have one.
Set the camera on a tripod, and if your lens has Image Stabilization turn it off.
Set the focus on a distant object if you can, or just infinity.
Set the camera in (M)anual mode.
I use ISO 400, and sometimes 200
f stop at about f/8.
The lens I used was a EF28-135mm @ 28mm
Whatever lens you use, set it on the shortest focal length to cover more sky.
If you have a remote shutter switch you can set the exposure to Bulb and just hold the shutter open as long as you like until you know you have seen a lightening strike. Careful not to go too long if there is a lot of artificial lighting in the area.
Or you can set the exposure to a specific time. On these I set it to 20 seconds.

What not to do: Often when you see an approaching storm you will see lightening strikes all over the place throughout the storm. You will want to try and follow it. What I mean by this is, you will see lightening strike and quickly point your camera in that direction hoping for another. Then it will strike somewhere else and you move the camera to that area. This is why a short focal length lens is nice, it covers more area and you can just aim at one location and keep taking shot there. You will miss plenty, but you will also capture many. I usually miss the best ones between shots just after I release the shutter or right as I open it.

Daytime lightening shots are a little more difficult. You either need to have great timing and be very quick on the trigger. Or you can set your camera on high speed continuous shooting and shoot in bursts. Doing this will waist a lot of shots, but your chances are greater that you will capture some lightening. If it's not a strong thunderstorm with frequent lightening I usually don't attempt daytime lightening photography.
Either day or night, a tripod is, IMO, a necessity.

Thanks for the response...sorry for this newbie question but what do you mean by setting the lens to the shortest focal length to cover more sky (especially after setting the focus to infinity)?

kezug wrote in post #10600012
Thanks for the response...sorry for this newbie question but what do you mean by setting the lens to the shortest focal length to cover more sky (especially after setting the focus to infinity)?

If you have a Zoom lens like the kit lenses that often come with Canon EOS DSLR's, i.e. EF-S 18-55mm or EF 28-135mm, you want to set the lens to the shortest focal length for the widest field of view.
If you have a prime lens, single focal length, then you won't have to worry about that.