Anyone have any tips on photographing lightning other than a good tripod and longer exposures?
Maybe an intervalometer would be useful too.
Photographing Lightning?
(15 posts) (7 voices)-
Posted 2 years ago #
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Yeah - don't stand right under where you expect the strike to occur. :-P
Posted 2 years ago # -
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.
Posted 2 years ago # -
rubber shoes.. stay in your car. and chase away!
Posted 2 years ago # -
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.
Posted 2 years ago # -
Also a smaller aperture is good like f8 or f16 as it keeps your dof good
Posted 2 years ago # -
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!
Posted 2 years ago # -
The D90 dose have aluminum as much of it's build... But be more worried about your bogen (or whatever you support with)...
Posted 2 years ago # -
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.
Posted 2 years ago # -
kyoshinikon said:
Also a smaller aperture is good like f8 or f16 as it keeps your dof goodYes, 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.
Posted 2 years ago # -
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
Posted 2 years ago # -
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?)
Posted 2 years ago # -
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.
Posted 2 years ago # -
I was able to get a couple decent ones in Cancun last summer. I wrote about it here:
Posted 2 years ago # -
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.
Posted 2 years ago #
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