How to Capture lightning, A mini how to.

[Bec78]

Originally Posted by Osprey

There's no hard and fast rule on aperture for lightning photos, but a good start is at f/5.6. As the lightning get closer and brighter then drop down anywhere up to f/11.

Here's just one of many shots that I've taken:



The rest can be found in my website gallery under Weather.

This shot is magnificent. Would love to be able to capture something like that. We have had a few storms here lately but usually been at work and by the time I get home its raining hard and most of the lightning is gone. Have just bought myself a cable release button too so very excited for our next storm to come and try and capture some cool shots.
Love your shot though!!!

[charmayne]

Thanks for the tips, I live in the Outback and have only seen lightning here once, but while I was trying to figure out the settings the storm had blown over. Your tips will be going into my little photography black book. Thanks.

[bigsarg7]

awesome photo's everyone, i too have been trying for the last 12 months to capture a nice shot, and failed!! but i figured out why, auto focus.....i had switched it off continuous but not auto, i should have thought about it more....ahh derr!! feeling a tad embarassed now, but will try this weekend, suposedly getting some storms!! -suposedly being the word!!

[shisnit]

If you don't have an external release shutter, I just set the camera on bulb (30 seconds) and put it on the timer. Works equally as well.

[Jasonvdm]

wats i cant wait for a thunder storm we get them quite often in south africa

o and are any of you coming to the fifa world cup in 2010

[LauraHiggins]

I enjoy nature and landscape photography. Last night I was focusing on evening images and a large stormfront quickly approached. I had my camera on my tripod with remote wireless cable release. I used my 100-400 mm lens and kept it at 100 mm, aperture was at F/22 and 1.30 of a second, ISO at 100.
This is one of the images captured. Next time I am going to use my 10-20 wide angle lens.

[ebojorq]

Hi, Everyone... I'm new here, so I thought it would be nice to start sharing with this photo.

It was taken in México, on Interstate 15, south of the state of Sonora, on a very heavy thunderstorm with a P&S Canon SD1000.

I was kind disappointed since one day before I tried to take pictures from this years meteor shower and it was this very same storm which blew it all out.

I had to take over 30 photos to get this one. The only post-production work it has is croping to get the lightnings (2, you can actually see two shadows of the same car as lightnings went off)) right where I wanted it.

De Experimentos

EXIF:
13/08/2010
Camera: Canon PowerShot SD1000
ISO: 80
Exposure: 4.0 s
Aperture: 2.8
Focal length: 5.8mm

[BrandonBroderick]

what a great thread! I'm still new to lightning photography. Lately I've been getting into shooting time lapses and decided to use that method to capture lighting. I have a remote that allows me to shoot at intervals and the last storm that passed through, I just set my camera on my tripod, set the camera to shoot one 10 second photo after another. Once the storm had passed, I went through all the images and sure enough I got lucky with one.

Canon EOS 1D MK IV, Canon EF 70-200mm lens 10 sec exposure @ f/4, ISO 100, 70mm, -1.0ev

I'm on my blackberry so I'm not sure how this will work. But if the photo didn't attach, here is the direct link
Windsor Lightning | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

looking forward to seeing how others shoot lighting!

[Oracheski]

Camera: Canon Mark IV
ISO: 200
Exposure: 23.0 s
Aperture: 5.0
Focal length: 18mm

Went out in the countryside to shoot the storm, eliminating almost all ambient light. A highway to the east allowed me to also get some shots with light streaks from vehicles in it.

[teepee12]

You can get them at Army-Navy stores, at many discount stores, etc. They cost (usually) between $3-$5, one size fits all, and they are a little less awkward than a trash bag. A friend turned me on to them, now a always have a few lying around in case a friend needs one too. Just a thought.