First light[ning]

[Jay-qu]

I took my new Canon 500D out for a first attempt at lightning photos, after around 80 continuous 1-second exposures I caught this! A bit more luck than skill and so I'm pretty happy with the result I shot at 100iso in RAW, played with the contrast and sharpness a bit to really bring out the bolt and the whitebalance to give it a nice purple hue.

[iceman (Mike)]

Beautiful!

[bloodhound31]

Well strike me!

Stunning!

[bartman (Bart)]

mmmmm
nobody has had a crack at saying " thats a cracker of a pic"?
So here goes....
Thats a CRACKER of a pic!!!!!
I'm awaiting the time to get one of those u beaut pics soon!!!!!
Well Done
Bartman

[bloodhound31]

Originally Posted by bartman

mmmmm
nobody has had a crack at saying " thats a cracker of a pic"?
So here goes....
Thats a CRACKER of a pic!!!!!
I'm awaiting the time to get one of those u beaut pics soon!!!!!
Well Done
Bartman

It's been done before mate, I didn't want to strike twice in the same spot....

[bartman (Bart)]

Originally Posted by bloodhound31

It's been done before mate, I didn't want to strike twice in the same spot....

A Quantum Mechanics conundrum?
Or did I post twice?
Where was/is the other cracker bloodhound?
Anyhoe, it doesn't matter
Bartman

[naskies (Dave)]

Beauty! What focal length was this shot with? It looks like the lightning struck close to your position - within a km or two?

[bartman (Bart)]

Originally Posted by naskies

Beauty! What focal length was this shot with? It looks like the lightning struck close to your position - within a km or two?

I'd have to agree with that comment.
How close was it?
Bartman

[Jay-qu]

Thanks guys

I was shooting fully wide (28mm) to get as much of the sky as I could. It was mighty close, the sound came within about a second (though my memory is hazy from shock and excitement).

[leon]

top shot indeed, love to get a few of those shots, but alas not much lightning about at the moment, well done.

leon

[lacad01 (Adam)]

Great job getting that

[adman (Adam)]

fantastic! I love lightning shots. Would have been great to capture where it struck.

Adam

[DavidU (Dave)]

Nice work !

[CapturingTheNight (Greg)]

Very nice Jay-qu In addition to being an amateur astrophotographer i'm also a bit of a storm chaser. You captured this well. What aperture were you running? Also if it was dark like it looks like it was you can do longer exposures and not run the risk as much of having a strike hit in the fraction of a second between frames. It happens more often than I like My typical settings for lightning are 15-30 seconds exposures, ISO 100-200, Aperture F/9 to F/22 depending on how close the strikes are. Again great job and remember the first rule in lightning photography- stay safe.

[Jay-qu]

Thanks for the tips Greg, I was shooting at f3.5. Initially I had it stopped down and was doing 30 second exposures, but the first few bolts I caught were a bit washed out and lacklustre.