Lightning

[Mjuboy]

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mjuboy/529558006/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1204/529558006_f094766df0.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="Lightning" /></a>

I took this photograph on a stormy night a couple of weeks ago.

I set up my tripod on the balcony and I took a total of 76 images that night and 4 of them had traces of lightning in them.

I initially set the exposure at 12 seconds but my camera (Sony DSC-H5) took too much time to process it so I set it at 8 seconds which had a relatively less processing time.

One of the main disadvantages of the long processing time was that during the processing, I missed about 2-3 lightning bolts which would've made good photographs.

I was quite pleased with the photograph since it was my first attempt at trying to take photographs of lightning and I was able to capture a good photograph. I've done some minor editing in Photoshop with Curves.

You can view the other photographs of lightning I took that night here (http://www.krishnamoorthi.com/?a=phpwebgallery&ToWebGallery=index.php?/category/27).

[chanedcomm]

Mjuboy, good catch... I tried the same a couple of weeks ago without any success.

I am surprised to learn that processing time has to do with exposure time on your Sony. It does not seem to be the case for my Nikon D80 (i.e. processing time remains more/less the same regardless of shutter speed).

Do you mind sharing other settings such as ISO and aperture etc.

Thx for sharing.

[Mjuboy]

Mine is not a DSLR, I guess thats why the processing time is long.

Aperture - f/7.1
ISO - 125
Focal Length - 6.0mm (35mm equivalent is 36mm)

[jiminyClickit]

Mjuboy, Welcome

Beautiful photo, framed well. Still have none of these myself. Well done.

[matthewchj]

Welcome to the forums, Mjuboy!

Nice photo. Sadly, storms like this don't happen in my country.

[Speezer9999]

I've done this with my old Pentax film camera. That was long ago when I was in college. Now so many moves later I have no idea what box they are in. I'm interested to try again with my DSLR. Now just need a storm when I have time.

Great shot. Love the compsoition and colors.

[Mjuboy]

Thanks for the positive feedback everyone! :)

[thekevinmonster]

Just a comment (that's an awesome pic!)...

I'm pretty sure the processing time is noise reduction. I think it's called 'blank frame noise reduction', where your camera takes two exposures. One exposure is of the actual scene, and the other is done with the shutter closed. This will basically let the camera detect any 'hot pixels' that are generating a signal with no actual light, and it can then subtract them from the image.

I presume that the longer the exposure, the longer the second exposure... at least on my A620 this is the case.

Some DSLRs do the same thing; my Pentax K100D does, for example.

[Nicole]

Great shot. And thanks for posting the settings you used. I really wish we got lightning like this where I live, but it's pretty rare. :)

[rikkersc]

Nice shot!
I am still hoping to get a good lightning shot myself.
By the way, where in the world are you located?

[a.saliga]

Great shots. Thanks for posting your settings.

I had a great oppurtunity to shoot some lightning last week. I live in Oklahoma, which has some of the most frequent lightning strikes in the US. It was perfect for shooting. Lighting surrounded me in all directions. Many of the bolts stayed in the sky for a few seconds and many came from the ground upwards with many forks.

The only problem was that I didn't have a tripod. I am buying one this weekend though just in time for 4th of July, so I should get some good pics then.

[Mjuboy]

@ thekevinmonster - Yes, I suppose that could be it since Noise Reduction autmatically kicks in when the exposure goes beyond 1 second.

@ rikkersc - I'm from India.

@ a.saliga - Good luck! I'm sure you'll capture some great photographs!

And thanks to everyone for the encouraging comments!

[miles]

Great work, everytime I go to get lightning shots the lightning stops as soon as I get my camera out!