Lightning Photos

Some of those were fantastic.

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wow. you aint kidding. some of those are amazing. i was digging them until i saw the second photo bballplaya posted...then i was like WOW! that shot and a few other after that shot are unbelievable.
 
I'm sorry to sound like an amatuer (which I am,) but how exactly do you get those shots how long do you normally leave the shutter opened and what else do you do? Those shots are amazing. I would love to try something like that next time I see a thunder storm.
 
Pretty much everyone of those photos were brilliant, good work. My favourite would be the cactus.
 
pest22o said:
I'm sorry to sound like an amatuer (which I am,) but how exactly do you get those shots how long do you normally leave the shutter opened and what else do you do? Those shots are amazing. I would love to try something like that next time I see a thunder storm.
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Lightning shots are the easiest and most difficult things to do.

First of all, you want to get a tripod and lock your camera down and point it towards the clouds. Then you want to set your camera in full manual and get set up for 30 second exposures (this is how I do it). From this point stack your ND filters on if it is really bright out but make sure that with a 30 second exposure you can get good solid exposure.

Then you wait.

I use a remote and just keep doing shutter releases. My personal taste is for a very small aperture (to facilitate the 30 second exposure), low ISO (on a D200 I shoot at ISO200, there is already going to be noise from the long exposure and I don't want any additional sensor noise in the image) and in camera noise reduction.

I do this because I want to give the sensor a chance to cool a bit... whether this really works, I have no clue, but it works for me.

Then you wait.

With a 30 second exposure you are only getting 1 shot per minute (30 seconds then for the noise reduction) and then it's luck.

You need to be in the right place at the right time, fire tons of shots, and just get lucky to have the lightning fire while you are firing away. I normally do mine under a canopy to reduce the rain on my gear and myself, but that should be obvious.

The lightning is obviously bright enough to show up on the 30 second exposure even though it lasts for the briefest of moments.

Have fun with it, but most importantly, good luck.
 
Hey Jer !! you took all these shots ??? You must hang out lighting alley

Anyhow thanks so much for sharing, I think lightning shots are the most amazing of natural photos. I am enjoying these just fine. Thnx

I hope to get at least one myslf one day and mount it in an honorable spot on my wall so, thanxks also for sharing the recipe, nice of ya !

later
joe
 
I didn't take any of these... just found a site with them online.

My lighting shots aren't anything like these... plus NC hasn't seen rain in months
 
thank you, I will definetly give it a shot. Now does anyone know any native americans who can teach me a traditional rain dance?
 
pest22o said:
thank you, I will definetly give it a shot. Now does anyone know any native americans who can teach me a traditional rain dance?
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No but there was a chick who studied it on How I Met Your Mother and Ted made it rain so he could stop Robin from going camping on the TV station trip...


I really like that show
 
Jeremy Ordan said:
No but there was a chick who studied it on How I Met Your Mother and Ted made it rain so he could stop Robin from going camping on the TV station trip...


I really like that show
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Never seen it. I'm more of a JFC fan. The 0's and 1's make up the camera. oh snap, I finally get it. Binery code! Man, somethings I know, somethings I don't.
 
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