Lightening

[AndCity]

We had a pretty big storm here this evening with some good lightening. What are the tricks and tips to capturing a decent lightening shot. I always seem to be too early or too late on the shutter.

[candleman]

Lightening? (just kidding, my spelling is just as bad)

long exposure, thats about it.
use bulb mode and have your camera on a tripod, do a 1 minute exposure, if you get nothingm, stop, and take another, and another ... the length of the exposure will be dependant on how bright it is and your aperture...

in short, just take long exosures,

[Kn1nJa]

I have not tried this yet so I am not an expert, but I heard that a great way to do this is to set your camera to bulb mode and hold the shutter open until you see a lightning flash then close the shutter (preferably using a remote switch to avoid camera shake)

I haven't had any good enough storms near me yet to try this out. I am also going to try it with fireworks.

[candleman]

yes, bulb mode is best.. but dont wait 10 minutes for a flash. or else when you do get a flash, and you let go the trigger.. your camera will sit there churning away for several minutes before you're able to take the next shot.

[jagoble25]

I really enjoy taking lightning shots. I bought a cable release for my D80 because I could only do exposures up to 30sec with out it and I would notice that the camera still moved no matter how gently I pressed the shutter. It gave me the ability to use bulb mode but I found that i got better shots with shorter exposures, and using the lock on the cable release to let it snap away. We have had some really great storms in my area the past couple of weeks but my camera is still in the shop. You can check out some of mine on my flickr and the exif data is viewable. They are really easy to do.

[AndCity]

Thanks for the advice - I await the next storm

As for my spelling - opps! Being a typesetter, I should have got it right!