# How do you take pictures of rain?



## Rachelsne (May 11, 2008)

We have been having some amazing rain storms in my local area, what I would like to do is take a few pictures that capture how heavy the rain is, as I have never seen rain this heavy before and I want to show my family back in Englad, so they dont have to be super perfect, I just want to show them the actual rain, Ive tried shooting the rain hitting the graound but it just doesnt show the severity of it, 

Does anyone have any tips?

Hope everyone having severe weather is staying safe.


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## EricBrian (May 11, 2008)

Great question. I am going to have to follow this thread.

I bet you have to shot very very fast.


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## Overread (May 11, 2008)

Have you tried playing with the shutter speed? I would set the camera to shutter priority mode and experiment with differnet speeds ( I would guess really fast speeds would be best for this sort of shot ). Try using the flash as well so you can get really fast speeds in the lower light


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## dEARlEADER (May 11, 2008)

Use your shutter priority mode....

Select the fasted shutter speed that makes a correct exposure and fire away... 

or you could try blurring the rain by selecting the slowest shutter speed that makes a correct exposure...


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## EricBrian (May 11, 2008)

Rachelsne,

I marked this as one of my favs in Flickr:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/pookie83/1378850204/

It isn't anything phenomenal, but the way the rain is suspended in mid air, to me, is awesome.


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## Joves (May 11, 2008)

Faster shutter speeds is about all that will do the trick in stopping action. Or you can make it look like it is streaming with low ISOs and, smaller f/ratios.


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## Ben-71 (May 12, 2008)

Also, you may try having the rain backlighted, by street lights for instance.


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## BoblyBill (May 12, 2008)

I would get a flash off camera at say 45 degrees and shoot at the fastest shudder speed you could. If you didn't have an off camera flash... I would use the popup flash to see if I could get the shot that way. I would have to say that rain is usually dark and would require at least 1/200th of a shudder speed to stop it. I don't think you'll be able to find that you'll be able to get rain light enough unlest you up you ISO to say 1600 or something like that.


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## kundalini (May 12, 2008)

Definitely shutter speed and some lighting as been suggested.

*This* was taken at 1/500.  It's not rain, but water is wet. :lol

If you can go faster than 1/500 you're much better off to stop action.  *This* was at 1/8000.

But then again, you may want a slower shutter to capture the feeling of the deluge.

Shoot as many different settings you can to get the emotion you want to portray.  Good luck.


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