Photographing Lightning?!?!?

[Shood87]

So i am noob when it comes to photography and i had a question about photographing lightning.

Equipment:

Nikon D40 with a kit lens
tripod
wireless remote
two filters.

Now i was just wondering weather or not i should be in bulb mode or should i have a set length of time? I also have a question about bulb mode, once I get my AC adapter in the mail how long can the shutter stay open for? Will a long period of time damage anything?

Thank you for any help.

[BCampbell]

It depends on exactly what you're looking for, but it's similar in practice to fireworks.

Focus very far, expose for the scene, and keep the shutter open to catch the stray bolt. You can count bolts and time them to get an idea of how long you should leave the shutter open. Very long exposures will give you lots of bolts in one photo, but could also lead to some undesired effects. Experiment, but you probably won't need more than a few seconds, bulb setting probably won't even be required (i.e., you'll be under 30 seconds).

And, make sure you stay dry.

[Shood87]

Thank you for the input. There is a storm heading up the east coast i hope that will produce some lightning. Hopefully i can get a lot of practice.

I have a nice view from my covered balcony, I will def be staying dry lol.

[tjdhulst]

One thing you could try is setting your exposure time for 30 seconds and then lock your shutter remote in place so that it continuously takes one picture after another. You might only get one bolt in each picture but afterwards you could combine many of your bolt pictures into one using programs such as Photomatix, Photoshop or maybe even Startrails. This will allow you to properly expose for the scene and still be able to add a couple of lightning bolts in there by combining shots. If you're using a tripod this should work out well as your foreground should always be in focus and lined up perfectly. This is how I shoot star trails to get long exposures without overblowing my foreground. Simply just lock the shutter remote and step back. I recently purchased Photomatix ($100) and it is so, so worth it. Good luck, would love to see some of your shots.

[Nelson Clark]

What I do is bulb mode and nothing else, using a tripod or a windowpod (when it's not raining), I place the camera in the general direction of where the lightning strikes the most and adjust as it passes by. I focus to infinity in manual focus mode, set the aperture at around f8 for night shots. I then press the shutter using a remote on bulb mode and count down in my head so that I don't get shots that are overexposed if you are near a city. If you are in the country fare away from a city, you can generally have exposures up to 1 minute without any problems. When a bolt or two have been captured, I release the shutter, adjust the direction of the camera if needed and do it all over again. For multiple strikes, you might need to close the aperture 1 or 2 stops so that it's not overexposed and the blacks get all washed out.

Here are a few of my lightning strikes I got and managed to post before my hard drive crashed and lost over 2 months of pictures.

[Shood87]

Well unfortunately the big storm that came this weekend brought me no lightning

tj: Great photo and thank you for the tip. I am also very interested in star trails. maybe on a clear night coming up i can experiment more.

Nelson: Sorry to hear about your hard drive. I will also try this when i get a chance. Those are some great shots.

I cant even remember the last time i saw lightning. it seems like forever.