Living in California we doing see to much lightning. I've only had one opportunity to shoot lighting and my results were horrible. Since that I've done a little research and watched a number of video's and this one happens to be one of my favorites. Watch it a few times, take some notes and when lightning strikes you will be ready!
In this video he breaks it down to 8 steps, and they are:
1. Shoot in Manual mode
2. Set shutter to 30 second
3. Set aperture to f/10
4. Set ISO to 100 or lowest setting
5. Shoot in RAW mode
6. Set your focus to manual and focus just shy of infinity
7. Use a side angle lens
8. Put the camera on Tripod
Generally speaking he's right, but it depends where you're shooting. I've shot lightening often over the city and the settings are different because of the ambient light. I used a shorter shutter speed basically (I think 4 seconds) and took more photos.
Stealthy Ninja wrote: Generally speaking he's right, but it depends where you're shooting. I've shot lightening often over the city and the settings are different because of the ambient light. I used a shorter shutter speed basically (I think 4 seconds) and took more photos.
15 minutes later:
I'm so jealous! I wish we had more lightning here! Great shot bro! I think this is a fantastic photo. Ninja, do you have a gallery set up here? Please upload some of your work. Thank you!
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Stealthy Ninja wrote: Generally speaking he's right, but it depends where you're shooting. I've shot lightening often over the city and the settings are different because of the ambient light. I used a shorter shutter speed basically (I think 4 seconds) and took more photos.
15 minutes later:
I'm so jealous! I wish we had more lightning here! Great shot bro! I think this is a fantastic photo. Ninja, do you have a gallery set up here? Please upload some of your work. Thank you!
I have a flickr. Honestly I haven't been shooting lately as I've had a bit of a bad back. Now that's clearing up I should start shooting more.
I've been shooting lightning for years now and barely get a good shot. I have a couple of decent shots. The problem is, we don't get good lightning storms here. I always use BULB and my remote. Every time there is a storm coming, I run outside to get some shots. Of course my husband is feared for my life as I will stand in the storm. lol I don't try to stand in the storm, it's just when I take notice the storm is here. lol
Last summer I had the chance to take so many lightning shots but it didn't work out. My husband's grandmother died and his grandparents live in OK. So, husband, I, MIL and SIL all drove down in one car. It was about 11pm, hubby was driving and all of a sudden lightning storm hit. I wanted so bad to get out of the car and take pictures. It was the kind of lightning that hits every 10-20secs straight across the sky. I was shooting like hell in the car, which I only got one good shot. My husband said he would have stopped if it was just him and I and we weren't on a time schedule. I know he would have too, because it was the perfect setting. The storm was big. So I could have gotten shots of lightning in an open field and over looking the city. We were driving through Indianapolis and a lightning came down and appear to hit a building. I so wanted to get out of the car and shoot.
In the meantime, my husband is also enjoy the display and my MIL and SIL who were sleeping, but got woken up from the bright flashes, just wish to get out of the storm ASAP. lol
Stealthy Ninja wrote: Generally speaking he's right, but it depends where you're shooting. I've shot lightening often over the city and the settings are different because of the ambient light. I used a shorter shutter speed basically (I think 4 seconds) and took more photos.
Likewise, lightning's rare here. The bolts are sporatic and I always have to take tons of shots to get a decent capture. This is probably my luckiest one, two major bolts intersecting within a 30 second capture
I wonder what place in the US has the most electrical activity - Florida?
Well since my D300 only has ISO 200 as its lowest native ISO and I dont push into the Lo modes, I use Neutral Density filters to get longer exposures depending upon the lighting ofcourse. I havent been trying to catch lightning the past couple of years but may try this season because we do get alot of dry storms here and many times like over the Painted Desert area you can shoot them from a good distance where the storm is lit by the sun from the back. But an ND helps when it is a bright storm.
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