Photographing lightning ?

[stardust steve (Steve)]

Hi everyone, got a quick question for you. Have you and what setting would you use for lightning photography?. Would you use burst set at low ISO, fast shutter and fast apperature? Or is long exposure better? Thinking of setting up for some lightning pics if this storm decides to put on a show. May even chuck the SLR on the 102mm refractor for a bit of fun

[Danack (Dan Ackroyd)]

You want a long exposure with a small aperture. Lightning is really bright and will flood the camera with light for short exposures. Plus having the exposure as long as possible maximises your chance of getting a bolt in frame.

If you're going to try and capture the lightning by hand you should:

i) Set the camera to manual focus.
ii) Set the camera to manual exposure and set the exposure to be underexposed by a little (like half or 1 stop).
iii) Get lucky.

Unless the storm makes the sky completely black which allows you to use multiple-second long exposures, you'll find it really hard to get lightning shots during the day, unless you use either something to automatically trigger the camera.

I've used <a href="http://chdk.wikia.com/">CHDK</a> firmware on my little point and shoot canon.

But for a 500D you can try the <a href="http://magiclantern.wikia.com/wiki/Unified">Magic Lantern</a> which has a motion detection mode. The motion detection also gets triggered by lightning flashes.

[stardust steve (Steve)]

great info thanks Dan.

When the kids are in bed and if this storm hangs around and decides to put on a show i will be eagerly trying to capture it

Cheers!
Steve

[kinetic (Steve)]

Steve,

I don't think I have ever been actually scared for my saftey more
during a lightning storm as this afternoon when that front came through.
We had about a dozen VERY close strikes...

The weather lately has been very weird...so many deep lows so far south
of the tropics.....or so far north from sub-antarctic....and almost nil widely spaced stable highs.

Steve

[Paul Haese]

Grab yourself a lightning trigger (see lightningtrigger.com) so you can do day light too.

Generally I use ISO 200 or less, f8 and around 1/25-1/40 of a second for daylight (had to check with Virgs today I had this right). For night time 30" exposure low iso and f8.

Was a lovely treat to get lightning today. 33,000 or so strikes today across SA. Wish I had gone to the Riverland though.

[stardust steve (Steve)]

Originally Posted by kinetic

Steve,

I don't think I have ever been actually scared for my saftey more
during a lightning storm as this afternoon when that front came through.
We had about a dozen VERY close strikes...

The weather lately has been very weird...so many deep lows so far south
of the tropics.....or so far north from sub-antarctic....and almost nil widely spaced stable highs.

Steve

nice satellite image, yeah i saw a few thick bolts and would not want to be anywhere near them I had setup up for some pics and realised the camera battery went flat, its on charge now but i think the show might be over. Will pop the head out and check.

[stardust steve (Steve)]

Originally Posted by Paul Haese

Grab yourself a lightning trigger (see lightningtrigger.com) so you can do day light too.

Generally I use ISO 200 or less, f8 and around 1/25-1/40 of a second for daylight (had to check with Virgs today I had this right). For night time 30" exposure low iso and f8.

Was a lovely treat to get lightning today. 33,000 or so strikes today across SA. Wish I had gone to the Riverland though.

Great thanks for the info. I may look into these triggers/ motion activated devices. It would have made for some great images up the river with that storm.

[jamiep (Jamie)]

There is someone making lighning triggers here in Australia - hoping to have a chance to try mine out tomorrow!.

He's from Adelaide also - I'm pretty sure he's an IIS member as well ... maybe he'll pop by and visit this thread.

He has a product for sale on ebay at the moment....

[luigi]

Hi Steve,

I usually use 15 to 30 second exposures using F11 and ISO100 or 200.
A remote intervalometer is perfect so you can program it to take the exposures while you enjoy the storm from a safe place.