Infrared in a Thunderstorm

[bulldurham]

Sometimes, you just have to play...
Playing with infrared - in a thunderstorm, through a double paned, high impact window.
f/4, ISO 400, 8 sec exposure
(If you click on the image, you can see how wet the window is.)

 

[K9Kirk]

Nice shot!

 

[Mike Drone]

Great shot! =]

 

[charlie76]

Interesting photo

 

[Space Face]

Not sure the storm aspect comes across. However, I like the inclusion and positioning of the chair, thought provoking.

 

[petrochemist]

I've only used IR when shooting storms at night, which allowed hand held shots a fair chance of capturing something interesting. (I was constantly swapping between my normal & converted cameras). Shot between 2am & 3.30am. We don't get many thunderstorms here, so I'm willing to get up if they sound dramatic. Finding a better location than my bedroom window would have helped my compositions!
IR lightning by Mike Kanssen, on Flickr

Later I removed the IR filter & shot full spectrum, but when I got a flash it ended up looking like daylight:
ultra flashgun by Mike Kanssen, on Flickr

 

[bulldurham]

What was your exposure time on the IR shot...I was shooting in to much light, I thought to get that kind of contrast but have given it a lot more thought since then...if you zoom in on the image, you can see the rain spots on the window...perhaps should have called in IR in a rain storm though on occasion, there was lightning.

 

[petrochemist]

What was your exposure time on the IR shot...I was shooting in to much light, I thought to get that kind of contrast but have given it a lot more thought since then...if you zoom in on the image, you can see the rain spots on the window...perhaps should have called in IR in a rain storm though on occasion, there was lightning.

IIRC I set the camera to 60s (the longest I could set my camera to in manual), the actual exposure was effectively just the rime of the lightning strike, so the other 59.99 or so seconds didn't see anything. despite it being the most dramatic thunderstorm I've seen i had quite a few shots with no lightning.
This approach prevents the need to try & predict when a strike is happening but sadly it doesn't work in the daytime.

IR is usually shot in bright daylight, but there's no need for us to restrict ourselves to that if we have modified cameras. I've seen IR shots taken by moonlight, and have shot some using lights (tungsten, normal flash & infra red only lighting).
It seems it's not even a case of 'the skies the limit' - though my own efforts at IR astronomy have been useless.

 

[bulldurham]

I wonder if mi MIOPS lightning trigger would set it off long enough to get a decent exposure. I'll try it and let you know