wild looking.

It turns out I may be doing this over the next few days, depending on what the weather turns out to be here. I was planning on star trails once we got up into Dillon(,CO) but i'd be just as happy with trying out doing some lightning shots.

I was able to get a couple decent ones in Cancun last summer. I wrote about it here:

warprints said:
NSX - I refer you back to my fisrt response in this thread ... don't stand where you expect the lightning to strike .... although it also occurred to me that such a vantage point may result in quite a unique photo. (Where did you say that you keep your will?)

Haha, don't worry, it would be incredibly dangerous. I'm not photographing lightning anytime soon.

NSX - I refer you back to my fisrt response in this thread ... don't stand where you expect the lightning to strike .... although it also occurred to me that such a vantage point may result in quite a unique photo. (Where did you say that you keep your will?)

warprints said:
Yes, this is true, but for lightning, you SHOULD be shooting at a sufficient distance that even a large aperature will give sufficient depth of field - unless you really want the foreground close to you in focus too.

Depth of field isn't a really big problem, it's far enough away that it's not too bad. Then again, photography is getting a photo that others haven't gotten. I have yet seen someone take a photo of lightning striking a rod with an angle from the bottom of the rod looking up. Hmmm... giving me ideas. I'll be building a large set of chain mail, thank you very much for that shot. :D

Also, I guess higher FPS would help too. You really want to catch motion, really quick motion. :D

kyoshinikon said:
Also a smaller aperture is good like f8 or f16 as it keeps your dof good

Yes, this is true, but for lightning, you SHOULD be shooting at a sufficient distance that even a large aperature will give sufficient depth of field - unless you really want the foreground close to you in focus too.

Yes I know the D90 has an aluminum chassis but the outer shell is plastic. Besides I was just joking as lighting will want to strike YOU and not your camera anyway.

The D90 dose have aluminum as much of it's build... But be more worried about your bogen (or whatever you support with)...

Stay away from metal bodied cameras! Use something that's plastic like the D90 with the 35mm f1.8 lens :^)

And don't stand in the middle of an open field. Remember that lighting can strike miles ahead of a storm under blue sky! Seriously!

Also a smaller aperture is good like f8 or f16 as it keeps your dof good

Thanks.

Yeah, I was experimenting a bit two days ago, I came up empty handed because I couldn't foresee when the lightning would show up. Duh. :D

I ended up with one good shot, but there was no lightning, but the clouds were lit up nicely.

I need Zeus to pose for me.

rubber shoes.. stay in your car. and chase away!

Lightning is actually VERY bright. Set your camera on a low ISO, time exposure or B, and experiment with f-stop. Close lightening will do better at ISO 100 and f8 or f11, while distant lightening needs f5.6 or lower. Experiment. Keep safe.

Yeah - don't stand right under where you expect the strike to occur. :-P

Anyone have any tips on photographing lightning other than a good tripod and longer exposures?

Maybe an intervalometer would be useful too.