# Shooting Lightning...



## ImageArray (Sep 7, 2010)

Hello! I'm wondering if anyone gets any good shots of lightning? We had an awesome storm this evening and I grabbed my camera. Needless to say I only got 2 shots where anything showed up and they are both horrible!!! I didn't not use continuous mode on my camera but thinking I should have???

#1 was an error shot, I still had my flash on but I really liked the image, caught the rain falling and I thought it looked like diamonds lol. 

#2 & #3 are both my pathetic attempts at getting lightning on camera. Needless to say it did not work out at all. 

For those who shoot weather, what tips can you give me for shooting storms? I would LOVE to get a decent shot of lightning some day.

#1.






#2.





#3.


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## reznap (Sep 7, 2010)

You want to use a long shutter speed for lightning.  By long I mean... 30 seconds or more even.  You get a correct exposure by using a small aperture, like f/18 or f/22.  I'm not sure what camera you're using, but most point and shoot and hybrid cameras can't do extended exposures (my fuji was limited to 8 seconds).  Then you want to manually focus to infinity and hope to capture something while the shutter's open.


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## Buckster (Sep 7, 2010)

My lightning recipe:

Tripod
Wide angle
Buildings or other elements to juxtapose the lightning with/against
Long shutter (usually 30 seconds, depending on how dark it is out)
Tight aperture
Focus set to infinity and locked down
Lots of frames - most will be throwaways - once in a while, you get a 'keeper':


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## 20civic04 (Sep 7, 2010)

Buckster said:


> My lightning recipe:
> 
> Tripod
> Wide angle
> ...


 
x2, just do what he said and sooner or later you'll get some good pics. also you can look on flickr at lightning pictures or anything else for that matter and sometimes it will show you all the settings that were used when taking the picture.


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## DerekSalem (Sep 7, 2010)

Buckster said:


>



Wow! One of the best-looking Lightning pictures I've ever seen!

I'm guessing this was shot in RAW and then the WB was edited in post? Amazing coloring and light!


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## israel09 (Sep 7, 2010)

DerekSalem said:


> Buckster said:
> 
> 
> >
> ...



yes, that sky is terrifyingly great


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## Buckster (Sep 8, 2010)

DerekSalem said:


> Wow! One of the best-looking Lightning pictures I've ever seen!


Thank you kindly!



DerekSalem said:


> I'm guessing this was shot in RAW and then the WB was edited in post? Amazing coloring and light!


Yes, I always shoot RAW. The WB needed very little adjustment. Note the light inside the house and the tail lights going down the road during the exposure - they're fairly accurate, I think.

The clouds themselves were already pretty cool looking straight out of the camera, but I did apply some burning to them using an overlay blend mode, which really brought them to life. Then I applied a graduated cooling filter to the top of them to give the composition as a whole a more intriguing color palette.


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## KKJUN (Sep 8, 2010)

What about setting the camera to "Bulb", and then just exposing until there's some lightning?


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## Buckster (Sep 8, 2010)

KKJUN said:


> What about setting the camera to "Bulb", and then just exposing until there's some lightning?


1. As long as it's dark enough that you don't end up over-exposing, that'll work too. You can, of course, use ND filters and so on to compensate further for even longer exposures.

But...

2. The longer the exposure, the more noise you'll have in the final image.

3. The longer the exposure, the longer it takes for the camera to process it so that you can take the next image (that period is usually when the best lightning strikes - I think it's one of Murphy's laws! LOL).

I find that 30 second exposures one right after the other work well for me, but it's certainly not the only way to work (nor necessarily even the best - just works for me ).


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## mwcfarms (Sep 8, 2010)

I caught a couple on film this summer using the 30 secs exposure trick also. Just one right after the other lol. It wasnt quite dark yet so any longer and I might have overexposed. I stood out there for half an hour or longer just click, click, click. Was just lucky I guess. 

ND filters for this, hmmm I might have to try that, although the season is wrong now. Thanks for the tips buckster.


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## mmartin (Sep 8, 2010)

Wow, first shot is incredible.


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## bazooka (Sep 8, 2010)

"Thanked" for the tips.  I recently tried during the day with a polarizer and 3 stop ND, but still only achieved about a 4 sec shutter speed @ f/16 or 18.  Do you stack ND's during the day?  I did get one strike though, but don't have it hosted to share at the moment.


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## hankejp (Sep 8, 2010)

I try to limit my shutter speed between 5-10 seconds at a time.

ISO 400
Exposure - 5.4 sec
Aperture - f6.3
70 mm


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## SrBiscuit (Sep 8, 2010)

it can depend on the ambient light and all that ****.

this one was 13sec at 5.6


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## Phranquey (Sep 8, 2010)

Buckster said:


> The longer the exposure, the more noise you'll have in the final image.


 
:thumbup: And once it starts building, it tends to compound..... fast. I like to keep my exposures to 15-25 seconds at night.


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## StephanieHamar (Sep 8, 2010)

Most of my good opportunities for lightning shots are during the day.  I have not yet been successful in pressing the shutter quickly enough after I notice lightning to get a daytime image.  I know it is a lot more difficult than doing the exposures at night.  Are there any good tricks, or do I need to develop mad button-pressing skills to do this?  Would using an off-camera release be useful?


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## farmerj (Sep 8, 2010)

if you REALLY want to get serious about it and have enough lightening to justify it...

Capture the Lightning Landscape with the Lightning Trigger!

Late late at night in the middle of the country, I use bulb.

Have tried a couple times at 15-30 seconds.


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## Buckster (Sep 9, 2010)

bazooka said:


> "Thanked" for the tips. I recently tried during the day with a polarizer and 3 stop ND, but still only achieved about a 4 sec shutter speed @ f/16 or 18. Do you stack ND's during the day? I did get one strike though, but don't have it hosted to share at the moment.


I've never personally tried lightning during the day, but I do occasionally use NDs for waterfalls or other effects during the day, and I agree - they don't give much time unless you stack up a lot of ND in front of the lens.

I think I saw Derrell mention a 10 stop ND out there somewhere?  I've heard of folks puttting two circular polarizers in front of the lens and rotating them against each other to make a variable ND as well.  As they turn, they act together to cut more and more light, and at some point in the rotation, they cut out all light from entering the lens entirely.


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## 8ball (Sep 9, 2010)

my one questions is what do you do as far a focusing? what do you foucs on and if its dark how do you focus?


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## Mustlovedragons (Sep 9, 2010)

You guys SUCK!! (and by that I mean that I am seething with jealousy bc the lightning shot is my "Eleanor"...the one that always eludes me) Awesome shots!


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## farmerj (Sep 9, 2010)

8ball said:


> my one questions is what do you do as far a focusing? what do you foucs on and if its dark how do you focus?




You can figure that out during ANY shooting.

Set your lens to infinity and see if and where it truly is infinity.  It's not actually on the symbol


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## bazooka (Sep 9, 2010)

Thanks for the tip Buckster. I just ordered a custom 7-stop 85mm square ND from a manufacturer in the UK. I plan on just taping it to the front of the lens, but I also have a Cokin filter holder as well. formatt .co .uk It was only $70 with shipping!  They make up to a 10-stop, but I heard that it gives a pretty nasty color cast.


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## Phranquey (Sep 9, 2010)

StephanieHamar said:


> Most of my good opportunities for lightning shots are during the day. I have not yet been successful in pressing the shutter quickly enough after I notice lightning to get a daytime image. I know it is a lot more difficult than doing the exposures at night. Are there any good tricks, or do I need to develop mad button-pressing skills to do this? Would using an off-camera release be useful?


 
Sorry, I don't think _anyone's_ reaction times are that fast....  

You have to have the shutter already open when the lightning strikes.  Put the camera on Aperture priority, set your ISO at it's lowest setting, and drop your f/stop all the way down to give you the slowest shutter speed possible.  Usually, this will still be in fractions of a second during the day, which is why a high-stop neutral density filter is also recommended.


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## Phranquey (Sep 9, 2010)

Mustlovedragons said:


> You guys SUCK!! (and by that I mean that I am seething with jealousy bc the lightning shot is my "Eleanor"...the one that always eludes me) Awesome shots!


 

:mrgreen:  Lots of patience (and memory cards).  There have been times where I have chased for an entire evening, taken upwards of 1000 shots, and _maybe_ get 1 or 2 really good keepers.

And... a good quality tripod is a must for daytime storm shots.  A lot of times you are ahead of a storm while it's blowing in on you, and a weak tripod will shake like crazy, blurring your foreground while the shutter's open.


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## bluetibby1 (Jan 4, 2011)

Amazing shots. So jealous. 
Blue


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## MichiganFarts (Jan 4, 2011)

I gotta say, Buck, I was absolutely right about being able to learn something from ya!  

Nice shots indeed...I remember as a kid, visiting my grandparents in Nebraska, and I've always wanted to go back there just to shoot the lightning storms we used to watch (they're just not the same with pine trees in the way)...now maybe I'll know how lol.


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## Buckster (Jan 4, 2011)

Thank you kindly.  No hard feelings here btw.


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## MichiganFarts (Jan 4, 2011)

Good!  'Cause I didn't come to fight with people, I just wanted to get back into photography after 5 years of being married with a crappy P&S lol...

I don't want to cut off potential sources of wisdom, which is why I didn't tell Derrel my first impressions of him are "what a dick!"...

Wait...what just happened here? lol...

Anyway, I'll try to be more submissive, but I got the fight inside me ya know?! lol..


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## benlonghair (Jan 4, 2011)

I don't 100% agree with the tight aperture. This was shot at 30sec, ISO 200 and f/5. Of course it was midnight and pouring rain, so that sucks up some light, i suppose.




7-24 lightning 2  by ben_long_hair, on Flickr


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## Buckster (Jan 4, 2011)

benlonghair said:


> I don't 100% agree with the tight aperture. This was shot at 30sec, ISO 200 and f/5. Of course it was midnight and pouring rain, so that sucks up some light, i suppose.


I suppose it just depends on the conditions, especially the available light and foreground elements.

I tend to use it for lightning because it helps lengthen my shutter time and helps with greater DOF, so that I feel better about getting the lighting and whatever foreground element I'm trying for to be sharp, but that's not always the best solution.


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## D-B-J (Jan 4, 2011)

Buckster said:


> My lightning recipe:
> 
> Tripod
> Wide angle
> ...



Where do you place your camera?  I know all the settings i would need, and have the ability to do that, i just dont know where to put my camera.  Inside? Through a pane-window?  In a door frame? Under a small overhang?

Gorgeous shot btw!
Regards,
Jake


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## Buckster (Jan 4, 2011)

D-B-J said:


> Where do you place your camera? I know all the settings i would need, and have the ability to do that, i just dont know where to put my camera. Inside? Through a pane-window? In a door frame? Under a small overhang?
> 
> Gorgeous shot btw!
> Regards,
> Jake


Thank you kindly.

Mostly, I try to stay dry, while pointing in the general direction of where I think I'll get lighting and hopefully something interesting in the foreground to play it against compositionally.

That said, I like to shoot from inside door frames, garages or barns (nice big door openings) and, my favorite: Parking garages on the deck just below the top. Sometimes I'll set up outdoors if it's not raining too hard, with my camera and lens dressed in rain gear.

I'm not too crazy about shooting from indoors behind windows because they usually have rain drops all over them pretty quickly and I'm rarely going for a surrealist Dali effect.

Keep in mind that lightning is pretty dangerous stuff, so be careful about exposing yourself and your equipment to it.


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## LiveStrong2009 (Jan 4, 2011)

Here is my first successful attempt.

This was shot by repeatedly taking 30 second exposures at around f11.


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## Buckster (Jan 4, 2011)

LiveStrong2009 said:


> Here is my first successful attempt.
> 
> This was shot by repeatedly taking 30 second exposures at around f11.


Congrats!  Nicely done!


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## GooniesNeverSayDie11 (Jan 4, 2011)

You can use bulb setting if the storm is pretty consistent. Haven't you ever counted from during a storm as a kid? You hear thunder and count, or count from flash to flash to get a rough idea, then use bulb with all the same settings. You can always set the long shutter speeds also, but if you don't want the extra noise because a flash happens quickly after you open the shutter, then it might not always be ideal. Either way will work with enough practice and patience though. Also, they make lightning triggers ( I think they are expensive around like $200-400 ) but somehow they sense lightning and release the shutter. If you specialized in shooting lightning or lived in an area that gets a lot of storms, it might be worth it.


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## fredgettings (Feb 18, 2011)

sometimes it will show you all the settings that were used when taking the picture.


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## ziggy777 (Mar 17, 2011)

I have a good photo of a lightning strike, how do I post it on this thread?


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## Phranquey (Mar 23, 2011)

ziggy777 said:


> I have a good photo of a lightning strike, how do I post it on this thread?


 
Best way is to place you photo on a hosting site like Photobucket or Flickr, and then link to it.

BTW.... you from the Cleveland area??  Your avatar is the old WMMS radio station logo.


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## Buddy Thomason (Mar 24, 2011)

Shooting lightning is, for me at least, challenging and at times a bit scary. Here are a few captures from a big lightning storm in Colorado USA in 2009. It was a fast-moving storm, SE corner of Rocky Mountain National Park at about 9:30 PM or so. I used a Canon 1D MKII, 24-70 L zoom at approximately 35 mm, ISO 100, BULB mode, manual release timed to capture multiple flashes (beyond 30 sec noise is harsh and overexposure is an issue), in-camera noise reduction on, tripod: 











This next strike scared the heck out of me (*!*) and I backed off for a while until there was more distance between me and the big ground strikes like this one. 






Shooting these in RAW file format is important because white balance must be corrected due to the long exposures. The usual approach of framing the picture, fiddling with various settings etc. isn't practical. I pre-set the aperture between F8 and F11 and focus at infinity. Sure I got a bit wet, as did the camera/lens/tripod - but I don't worry about weather much because the 1 series Canon bodies and the L series lenses have excellent weather seals throughout. 

In this case I was lucky to get some very powerful near-by ground strikes in rapid succession. One trick I've discovered is to release the shutter (terminate the exposure) the very instant a big strike occurs. The fine branching away from the main bolt is better preserved and the inevitable over-exposure is minimized. Regarding post-processing, little is required beyond cropping, white balance and additional noise reduction on occasion. The last thing I do to these in post-processing is use my sharpen brush at 2-4% in the 'lighten' mode applied to the lightning itself. For lighting strikes that aren't strong enough for my taste, I will sometimes use the high pass filter to sharpen the lightning detail. I use PSCS5 for post-processing.

Above all, never assume you're safe anywhere near lightning! Learn the best precautions to take, and apply them.


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## antiquerookie (Apr 19, 2011)

Last October in Monument Valley AZ, I was trying to get some nightscape shots using a Nikon FE (35mm with analog exposure).  The thunderstorms on the horizon in the distance generated enough lightning light to trip off the shutter so what I got was a very small zone of what might have been pretty detailed lightening shots and whole lot of black.  Since the FE does autoexposure for however long it takes (hours if necessary), I was thinking about using it for fireworks shots this coming 4th of July.  After reading the above posts and based on my Monument Valley experience, the FE would probably work for intentional lightning shots.  It being a film camera, you 'd have to wait a few days to see what you got  Since the 35mm frame size is 2.3 times the sensor size for a Nikon consumer digital camera, a good shot should have some neat detail.


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