I had what at the time seemed like a brilliant idea I'd stand out in the rain and film the lightening.
These are 3 of about 5 strikes that hit in a space of under a second with the closest strike about 6 feet away.
Fried my camera and put me in hospital but I did manage to save the SD card!!
Taken with 400D and 18-55mm lens, on tripod, one of last weeks storms, a little blurry but its hard to focus in a storm!!!
Know the problem, OBMY.
For lightning shots, try focussing on something in the target area (at night it might have to be a street light or something) and then locking focus. I often can't actually do that so I manually focus on infinity, usually with a wide angle lens, stop the aperture down to at least f/8 (but sometimes I've gone all the way to f/22) to increase the depth of field a bit, then with the camera on a tripod, take the longest images you can (within reason).
I also usually turn the in camera noise reduction off to reduce time between shots, and take continuous photos. Later just go through them and delete the shots without any lightning in them. During day/twilight some neutral density filters will help keep the exposure times long and so increase the chances of catching the lightning. I have an ND4 and an ND8 which still isn't enough for daytime for my liking but they help during twilight.
It's a bit more agricultural than having a lightning trigger, but it works.
yeah, my technique for lightning photography is to get your camera setup on a tripod with a remote trigger in bulb mode, i even turn on MLU for good measure, choose some ridiculous aperture so that you can get 30+ second exposure without over exposing. then leaving your shutter open until just after a strike. and like sheeny said, focus on something that's reasonably far away, but bright enough to get autofocus to work. being in suburbia myself, there's no shortage of street lamps and signs.
What i did was i had the camera set up on tripod with remote release, ISO 100 @ f/16. The storm was quite dark, and i had to judge what the focus was, i know the Canon 18-55mm lens doesn't focus on infinity according to the stop, it actually goes through focus, so i have to tweak it back slightly, and thats the tricky part! How do you focus lock with DSLR??
I'll have a squiz at the manual tonight.....
The problem with "pre-focussing" is that when theres lightning the camera can see contrast, but when its dark it can't. What ends up happening is that the camera will try to re-focus if in Auto mode before snapping the shot, and it won't take the pic when its trying to focus in the dark.....
My exposures were 30 seconds, i just set it up on manual 30" and let it rip!
What i did was i had the camera set up on tripod with remote release, ISO 100 @ f/16. The storm was quite dark, and i had to judge what the focus was, i know the Canon 18-55mm lens doesn't focus on infinity according to the stop, it actually goes through focus, so i have to tweak it back slightly, and thats the tricky part! How do you focus lock with DSLR??
I'll have a squiz at the manual tonight.....
The problem with "pre-focussing" is that when theres lightning the camera can see contrast, but when its dark it can't. What ends up happening is that the camera will try to re-focus if in Auto mode before snapping the shot, and it won't take the pic when its trying to focus in the dark.....
My exposures were 30 seconds, i just set it up on manual 30" and let it rip!
Cheers!
I'm sure you'll have a way to lock focus. It will be in your manual (but it's probably different to my Oly).
My camera also goes past infinity focus at some focal lengths and with some lenses, but my wide zoom is pretty good at it's widest so I might be lucky that way, but I also have livewiew, so manual focussing on a tripod is no prob.
here's how i would go about it. using autofocus, get your primary focus (again, using street lamps, signs, something with a bit of contrast) then once that is set, get a small bit of blu-tak and stick that onto you lens so that it 'joins' your focus ring and lens body together, this will stop any lens slop from awkward angles and movement, then switch your lens to 'manual focus'
that's essentially focus lock. your camera won't be looking for focus before taking the shot.
I had what at the time seemed like a brilliant idea I'd stand out in the rain and film the lightening.
These are 3 of about 5 strikes that hit in a space of under a second with the closest strike about 6 feet away.
Fried my camera and put me in hospital but I did manage to save the SD card!!
Holy crap!!
At first I thought it looked like internal reflections in the lens(red/pink colour) as has happened to me a few times.
The most spectacular looked like I'd captured 'feelers' leaping up off a mains power line, 'till I realised it was an inverted reflection
I'd stand out in the rain and film the lightening.
but I did manage to save the SD card!!
).
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