Shooting weather

[DigitalBard]

Any tips for shooting adverse weather? Specifically, I'm trying to get some shots of lightning in clouds. With just my normal camera settings yesterday morning, I got a lot of flashing and half-frames. I'm tried turning up the shutter speed, but doing so seems to increase the noise in the clouds.

I shot with only a clear UV filter.

 

[j1clark@ucsd.edu]

Any tips for shooting adverse weather? Specifically, I'm trying to get some shots of lightning in clouds. With just my normal camera settings yesterday morning, I got a lot of flashing and half-frames. I'm tried turning up the shutter speed, but doing so seems to increase the noise in the clouds.

I shot with only a clear UV filter.

Get the Grand Synchronizer... that is get that damn weather synch'd up with your video frame and shutter...

You may think about a DSLR type camera, so as to get a long shutter speed, like in the seconds... since anything with prosumer video probably is limited to 24/25/30 progressive, that will limit the shutter speed to be 1/Nth of a second, at the very least... there may be some cameras with some form of 'stop motion' capabilities... but you will aways get potentially partial frames, or other artifacts from the way the sensor is read out by the video camera.

The DSLR may not eliminate partial frames, but it may allow for a more likely capture timing for full lighting bolts...

 

[Sad Max]

You could try the slow-shutter settings, although the end result might be a little smeary and weird.

 

[grimrebes]

Or shoot with two cameras and composite the image in post. One camera stopped down for the moment of lightning, the other shooting so you can actually see whats around before and after the flash frame.

 

[Ryan Patrick O'Hara]

Half frames? Haha, God is punishing you for using blasphemous CMOS!

I'm still a celluloid or CCD kinda guy! Long live global exposures! I kid, I kid... but seriously, CMOS is the CCD's cheap-n-slutty younger cousin.


Anyway, Sad Max has a good point... open your shutter, and that will help increase your chance of capturing lightning, although technically lightning flashes are around 1/10th (some longer some shorter) of a second long... which would be 2.4 frames in 24fps... You shouldn't really be missing it unless you are shooting at an insanely high shutter speed.

As for your 'flashing', I'm not sure what the issue is.... perhaps you are exposing the camera for the night exterior, and when the lightning hits, your exposure becomes too much? Try closing your iris down to expose for when the bolt goes off... Otherwise, perhaps it was just a foggy night and the flashes of lightning were just back illuminating the atmospheric haze.

 

[DigitalBard]

Thanks! As I mentioned, turning up the shutter speed does lessen the amount of "flash" and half-frames, but it increases the noise on the clouds. Not sure if it was also due to it being 8am with the sun still pretty low in the sky.

Some nice thunderstorms expected today around 4pm, so I'll see how things go then with more back light on the clouds.

BTW, for weather protection on my HF11, I use a ziplock freezer bag. I cut a small hole in the bottom which I tape around my lense hood and that keeps my camera from getting wet by the rain. Gotta be careful of condensation in high humidity though...