One Question that we’re regularly asked about here at Digital Photography School is ‘How do I photograph Lightning?’
Our wonderful forum administrator NaturesPixel has put together a brief how to photograph lightning tutorial in our forums that tackles the question. At a little inspiration in your lightning photography you might also enjoy some of these 15 great lightning shots.
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80 Responses to “15 Electrifying Lightning Images” - Add Yours
November 8th, 2007 at 1:34 am
Yay, dramatic photos :]
Lightning is probably one of the coolest things to capture, at least while starting with DSLRs
November 8th, 2007 at 2:58 am
Nice photos… you can also photograph lightning using a high-speed, light sensitive trigger such as: http://lightningtrigger.com/
November 8th, 2007 at 3:44 am
Why are there halos around the lightning in the photo at the top? None of the other photos have anything similar. Was the lightning cloned in?
November 8th, 2007 at 5:02 am
Wooah – thoose pictures are awsome!
November 8th, 2007 at 6:31 am
Great photos! I’m wondering the same thing as Andrea. Too much color manipulation? -Lisa
November 8th, 2007 at 7:51 am
So the next post will have to be a tutorial on taking lightning shots then? :)
November 8th, 2007 at 9:42 am
I can almost hear and feel the crackling!!! Great captures!!
Once… a “bit” ago, I stuck my Yashicamat out on the balcony during an electrical storm at night, turned off all the interior lights, and just locked the shutter open for awhile. Must get those scanned soon!!
November 8th, 2007 at 11:57 am
First may I say thank-you for including a photo from my Flickr stream in this post. I was a little taken back.
Second. I am not the photographer of that picture. The photo is a Department of Defense photo that is rightfully credited in the comment below the picture. I thought the photo was rather amazing and put it in my Flickr to share with others. I have the highest regard for the photographers that take these pictures for the Armed Services. many of them are pretty darn awesome.
I hope I have not caused any mistrust to anyone viewing DPS.
Thank you for your understanding.
November 8th, 2007 at 2:28 pm
check out http://www.weatherscapes.com and read his technique section- might explain the halo section in first photo too
November 8th, 2007 at 8:45 pm
My reply just got bumped because I pointed out that there were some fake lightning pics above.. that sux as an editor policy! Just plain censorship!
/Conchis :(
November 8th, 2007 at 9:19 pm
Conchis – I’m not sure what happened to your first comment. Sometimes our spam filter falsely marks some comments as spam. I’m not sure if this happened in this occasion. Can I ask – did you include a link in your last comment? Some links seem to trigger it.
We don’t actually censor comments – unless they are racist, personal attacks or spam etc. We value different opinion and voices. You’re free to say what you wish – all we ask is that you be constructive and respectful of others.
November 9th, 2007 at 12:08 am
Those are really stunning shots. Thanks for sharing. :)
November 9th, 2007 at 7:01 am
In answer to Andrea’s query regarding the halo effect around the lightning in the top photo, lightning appears to have a halo when captured while if is going through thin wispy cloud or through rain. This may have been accentuated by what appears to be a strong contrast adjustment in the image and perhaps some white balance adjustment.
November 10th, 2007 at 2:49 am
Fantastic!
November 10th, 2007 at 11:42 am
These are amazing. I feel like I’ve been missing out on something. Lightening where I live is pretty mild compared to these shots!
November 12th, 2007 at 7:42 am
Great shots. Sometimes single strokes of lightning are also beautiful. And not too far away, as in this shot I took from our balcony this summer.
November 29th, 2007 at 3:38 am
These pictures are great!! Fantastic! Congrats!
December 2nd, 2007 at 12:27 pm
a few of the above do indefinately look to be a bit photoshoped, cropped, or add in’s. otherwise there amazing photos
December 7th, 2007 at 8:04 am
I’m one of the photographers.. surprised to see my photo here, thanks to whoever chose it.. :P
just wanted to say i wasn’t taken with a DSLR camera or anything, and also that it wasn’t photoshopped at all. just held my little casio exilim as steady as i could on the longest shutter speed it could give and waited patiently. result was as is.
i later bought a canon s3 which is a better camera, although still not an slr. happened to receive it on a stormy day, and so put it on a tripod and the first picture i took with it caught this lightning:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/reutc/346709427/
again, not photoshopped at all.. these are the great colours the camera gave. :)
January 31st, 2008 at 12:58 am
Great picture I love a good lightning storm
March 16th, 2008 at 3:40 am
great to see ..what nature give us…feel so good when lightning actually happens….thrilling,,,,,,,,,,loved these pictures
June 16th, 2008 at 1:40 pm
Those photo’s look amazing!!!
June 27th, 2008 at 10:20 pm
xtremely good photography at right moment atright place.those are really appreciable.
August 25th, 2008 at 4:52 am
They’re pretty amazing – now if only there was ever lightning in Ireland…
August 25th, 2008 at 9:07 pm
I’ve few more here
August 25th, 2008 at 9:10 pm
http://flickr.com/photos/nedyalko/2754551452/
http://flickr.com/photos/nedyalko/2679288700/
http://flickr.com/photos/nedyalko/2697594151/
http://flickr.com/photos/nedyalko/2676658896/
http://flickr.com/photos/nedyalko/2637577144/
GREAT SHOTS OF GENTLE LIGHTS
August 25th, 2008 at 11:32 pm
Something jogs my memory from schooldays,
Is there not an effect (phenomenon) around a large electrical discharge such as lightning???
Think it is called something like “plasma”, “corona” or “aurorae”????
The pic may be genuine so don’t go shooting your mouths off until proven otherwise!!!!
August 25th, 2008 at 11:53 pm
Great shots, we don’t get much crazy lightning around here in New Hampshire other than the recent Tornado generating storm and I wasn’t about to sit outside and get killed.
Pete
http://www.petelanglois.net
August 26th, 2008 at 12:04 am
I have a couple great shots of lightning as well that I would love to share. You can view them here at flickr:
http://flickr.com/photos/aphony/sets/72157606620305877/
August 26th, 2008 at 6:04 am
I shot the last Seattle lightning storm from a beach near my house. It was a great location because I had the entire seattle skyline to work with. The only problem was that even though my camera was on a tripod, with a remote release locked to shoot 30″ exposures one after the other (No human intervention), I somehow still got some motion blur. I’m not sure if it was waves coming on shore, because I was on a concrete structure, or if it was the force of the actual lightning.
Either way, it still came out, and is such a great thing for every photographer to experience.
Just try to stay away from your lightning rod aka tripod when you shoot :D
August 26th, 2008 at 9:28 am
These shots are amazing. I love lightning, especially around monsoon season here in Arizona.
August 26th, 2008 at 12:58 pm
This are all terrific photos; well done, guys! I must say though that I love city photos with lighting in the back. They have always been some of my favorite types of photos.
August 26th, 2008 at 1:10 pm
These are awesome, I had no idea lightening could be so wide when striking the ground, check out the one with the plane in front of it. Very cool post!
August 26th, 2008 at 2:43 pm
Those are some wonderful shots. I think I’ll share them with my readers. Thanks.
August 26th, 2008 at 2:45 pm
It would be better if they were all real and not photo”chopped”
August 26th, 2008 at 3:31 pm
Spectacular photos!
This video of lighting is also quite spectacular, taken at 7,200 frames per second:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hm7–Q9-OH8
August 26th, 2008 at 7:37 pm
I have a couple great shots of lightning as well Amazing Lightning Pictures You can view them here at more then 20 pic http://somethinbeautiful.blogspot.com/2008/08/amazing-lightning-pictures.html
August 26th, 2008 at 9:28 pm
Absolutely fabulous photos. Very nice indeed. http://www.useurl.us/17n
August 26th, 2008 at 10:25 pm
Amazing photo
August 26th, 2008 at 10:36 pm
Great photos but it somehow look scary…LOL!
http://www.KidTechGuru.blogspot.com
August 27th, 2008 at 12:15 am
These are awesome, i’d love to see something like that in real life. Check out this page for more lightening pictures:
http://www.collthings.co.uk/2008/06/lightning-frightening-pics.html
August 27th, 2008 at 12:27 am
Beautiful!
August 27th, 2008 at 5:25 am
Beautiful shoot!
August 27th, 2008 at 6:09 am
these are great pics.Nature at its best!
August 27th, 2008 at 6:09 am
Very nice pics.
I don’t know much about photography but is there anyway to “upsize” these so I can use them as a wallpaper?
August 27th, 2008 at 6:12 am
I’ll throw this up here — a recent lightning shot I took:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jabella/2706943521/
August 27th, 2008 at 11:53 am
Just spectacular! Leaves onr in awe.
August 27th, 2008 at 12:07 pm
Just spectacular!Leaves one in awe.
August 28th, 2008 at 8:20 am
These are amazing photos. It’s great to see camera technology advancing to the level necessary to capture this type of natural phenomena. Not very long ago, these types of images would have been impossible.
August 28th, 2008 at 4:38 pm
Thank you for compiling this wonderful post – with spectacular imagery; their absolutely amazing. My hat tips off to the fine photographers!
August 29th, 2008 at 1:43 am
Lightning is probably my favorite thing to photograph! Daytime is tricky but night is very easy. I have some lightning photos at http://www.khristian.com
August 30th, 2008 at 1:25 am
There is nothing like some amazing lightning strikes caught on film (or sensor :P)! I’ve been taking lightning strike photo’s for years and it’s actually not as hard as many may think. If you even have a point and shoot camera it can be achieved! If you want to learn some tips and techniques you can check out my blog: http://jhanger.blogpspot.com/ and learn some of the techniques as well as see some of the great lightning bolts that I’ve captured! We just had a storm so will be posting more images soon! :)
September 1st, 2008 at 6:15 am
Looks like PhotoShop effects although these are not..:) Great yeah :)
September 1st, 2008 at 10:46 am
wow great pics.. i just wondering what iso and shutter speed were used. Even the composition is excellent.
October 21st, 2008 at 3:40 am
WooooooooW great i like lightning photo`s here are some more :D http://www.the-amazing.com/?p=57
November 20th, 2008 at 1:03 am
Wow, those are amazing.
I’m no photographer, but I took a photo of a water droplet with a plain digital camera the other day and it was beautiful. Couldnt believe that it came out as well as it did. Anyway, hats off to you guys who take such briliant shots!!!
December 23rd, 2008 at 4:39 pm
wow, wonderful images. it is great to see. i think it is photoshoped, but it is amazing.
January 7th, 2009 at 10:03 pm
I read somewhere that most photos of lightning are actually single frames from insanely high quality movies. It’s too hard to time it right so photographers just video tape it with a high quality camera and then pick out the individual frames with lightning in them.
January 8th, 2009 at 4:44 pm
@ Chris, most captures you might see on the news television might be but most people who chase storms as a hobby do not have access to very high speed and low light video equipment. Instead, a series of long exposures are usually taken to balance the ambient light to the occasional flashes of lightning.
I chased another storm a while back and captured the following shots in and around Brisbane.
here: http://www.greenmantle.biz/20081203Storm/
February 19th, 2009 at 10:40 am
those pics. are so totally awesom!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
April 6th, 2009 at 3:49 am
I love watching lighting in the sky as long as it’s not to near to me.
April 6th, 2009 at 6:30 am
mine…
http://www.flickr.com/photos/william87/3024483161/in/set-72157611100462621/
April 6th, 2009 at 11:15 am
Y’know – we live in a pretty awesome world… and those pictures are astoundingly good examples of it. Well done to the photographers.
Just one thing – I wouldn’t liked to have been on that plane!!
April 6th, 2009 at 12:05 pm
I didn’t read this before I took this last week…but I think it came out pretty neat. =)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jodyangel/3402658928/
April 6th, 2009 at 1:28 pm
Regarding the halos in the first photo, there are similar effects in some of the other photos. I believe the halos are the result of the lightning reflecting of moisture or clouds near by. The first photo is of Hong Kong Island. Hong Kong frequently has very low-lying cloud cover, which is often made to glow by the tall skyscrapers. I think what we are seeing here is refections of the lightning on the bottom of clouds just over head.
April 7th, 2009 at 11:07 pm
I love those photographs! i don’t care if it is manipulated or not what’s best is somebody would teach me how to do it in my DSLR and on photoshop.
July 22nd, 2009 at 1:47 pm
it is so cool cause… um… everything!!!
July 22nd, 2009 at 1:53 pm
this is how I felt about the photos (*u*)
August 24th, 2009 at 10:50 pm
Great shots. Sometimes single strokes of lightning are also beautiful. And not too far away, as in this shot I took from our balcony this summer.
Read more: http://digital-photography-school.com/15-spectacular-lightning-images#ixzz0P6WwAvQu
August 26th, 2009 at 11:15 am
and one of mine :)
http://uin.deviantart.com/art/Flash-127516234
shameless self promotion never heart…me…yet
August 27th, 2009 at 11:02 am
these photos are so cool. I hope i can start to take photos this these if anyone has any photos can u send me some or tips on some so i cantake better photos
September 1st, 2009 at 3:05 am
Wonderful pictures!!! there are very few good ones on the web and very difficult to find. Well done!
September 22nd, 2009 at 10:32 am
These are awesome, I had no idea lightening could be so wide when striking the ground, check out the one with the plane in front of it. Very cool post!
telefon dinleme
September 22nd, 2009 at 11:05 pm
Just sitting through a storm in canberra at the moment hoping for a shot but alas, all sheet lightning so far
September 27th, 2009 at 12:06 pm
really awesome. Great photos. I gonna make it wallpaper of my own.
September 29th, 2009 at 7:37 pm
wawas, wonderful images. it is great to see. i think it is photo shoped, but it’s amazing .
October 2nd, 2009 at 5:10 pm
wow, wonderful images. it is great to see. i think it is photo shoped, but it’s amazing .
October 19th, 2009 at 7:24 am
Most of the photos aren’t real photos…there is no such wide lightings on the earth maybe other planets….just photoshop drawings…
October 20th, 2009 at 1:03 am
Wow ..!
So Cool Images Wonderful..!
Nice Blog..!
If you have time please visite my blog Amazing World Thanks for Share
November 18th, 2009 at 10:13 pm
I also thought about posting a shot of myself…but will wait, because now I realize that my weight and stress of it has caused a medical condition I have to take care of…you have been inspiring to me with the post and all!
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