Lightening bolt

[TrickyRic]

First time I've submitted something here, but after a few failed attempts at getting lightening shots from the recent storms, I finally managed to capture a few last night. This is the best of some very sad attempts, but given I broke my tripod a few days ago and was shooting through a bug screen, I'm a little proud!

The storm provided some much MUCH bigger, brighter bolts but unforunately I wasn't ready for those.

 

[Rachelsne]

congrats on your first lightening captures!!

 

[BoblyBill]

Looks like the focus is a little soft and the lightning could be a bit brighter. Just from the looks of it, I would say that an ISO of 100 at f/4 should have been enough to capture this due to the distance this looks from you, but because I'm not sure what lens you used or the setting I can't tell for sure. Great first attempt... My first attempt pales in comparison.

Actually my first thirty shots look like this... LOL...

 

[TrickyRic]

Thanks.

I stuck my smaller 18-55mm lens on as I figured a wide angle would give me the best chance of catching something and cropping it later. I tried out a few shutter speeds, think this one was around 4-10 but I'd have to check the meta data.

As for focus, I zoomed in on some of the middleground lights in the city, used manual to get something crisp, and zoomed back out to 18 to wait for some bolts. Unfortunately I broke the head off my tripod the last time I attempted a storm shoot, so I had to keep a steady hand and hope for the best.

My apartment stands 18 floors above the city by the way, so I get a good view of the bolts from here. After 20 minutes on the balcony though the rain got too heavy so I had to resort to shooting through the bug screen of a window, which kept me and the camera surprisingly dry, LOL.

There's been a few storms lately, hopefully more to come. Maybe I'll manage to catch one of the REAL bolts next time!

 

[osirus]

cool

for lighting at night.
use a longer shutter 20 -30 seconds.
and have a black piece or paper or somthing handy.
so is say 5 seconds into the exposure you get the perfect bolt. put the paper in front of the lens for the rest of it.

or the best way would be bulb mode and a remote

 

[BrandonS]

cool
and have a black piece or paper or somthing handy.
so is say 5 seconds into the exposure you get the perfect bolt. put the paper

good suggestion, I never thought of that. You can go with a longer shutter speed. If you do have things in the foreground though, you're going to want to make sure you expose for those as well. Maybe slightly underexpose in the even lightning lights up your foreground some.

 

[TrickyRic]

I was originally planning on some long shutter speeds but until I replace my tripod or it's head, that's not really an option. Next time I may try some higher ISO ratings instead. This was in 200...