Ride the Lightning...

[JamesMartin]

Hey all,

I have just been outdoors (about 10pm here) because we have a really nice storm rolling in, so I was shooting lightning shots before the rain comes .

So my question is.. Does anyone else do this (or am I the only crazy one ) and if so, got any ideas on getting better shots of a weather phenomenom (?) like this??

Thanx
- James

 

[darin3200]

I love taking pictures of lightning, there are some threads here about it as well. Are you shooting film or digital. If film, try to get about 100 and set the aperature so you can get a 30sec-60 second exposure, move the camera to bulb mode and hold the shutter button down. Same idea with digital.
What kind of camera do you have?

 

[ksmattfish]

Does anyone else do this (or am I the only crazy one

I saw a documentary about a photographer in the southwest who shoots lightning. For the documentary he was also running a video camera; recording himself in action. There is one scene where he sets up his still camera, and then walks back to check the video camera, and a small (but still deadly) bolt of lightning strikes about a foot from the still camera. He never saw it, heard it, etc... until he got home and looked at the video recording. Experts said it would have killed him if he'd been standing at the still camera. Be careful out there.

 

[fadingaway1986]

Hmm. I stand under shelter at home... set the aperture to the highest f/stop you can get... then hold the shutter open until you get lightning

if its at night, it should be dark enough not to over expose.

 

[doenoe]

here is a thread i started some time ago. Got shutterspeed and f-stops at the pics too.

http://www.thephotoforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=28635&highlight=lightning

Hope it helps a bit and good luck

 

[JamesMartin]

Kewl
Thanx alot for the info.
My camera is a Canon 20D (Digital ).

The real problem that I am facing is how to 'find' the lightning? What I did the other night was setup the tripod and leave the exposure open (like suggested here) and wait for it to strike infront of the camera... takes along time, after about 80 pics I got about 5 that had lightning in them
Also 3 out of the 5 had lightning in the pic, although because the camera was not zoomed up onto the area it is only small, still viewable, although I would like to to be full screen..... any idea?

Thanx again
- James

 

[JamesMartin]

Oh and Doenoe, is that a Beardie you got there?? Red phase?

 

[doenoe]

Well, i dont think there is a way to find lightning. Its just luck, i guess. I did the same thing as you did and it worked. I took something like 150 pics the time i tried to make those shots and around 5 of them had lightning.
You can try and shoot at the best quality and then just crop the pic. That way you can still have a nice pic of lightning. Just not good enough for printing though.

And yes, thats a beardie . Its a normal phase (well, it was sold to me as a normal). Got 2 of them. And both can get pretty orange when they are relaxed.

Greetz Daan

 

[fotoconsolation]

last summer i used to 'chase' storms i guess you could say? nothing crazy, but when a storm was moving in i would drive around and try to find the best spot i could and set up real quick. i got a bunch of shots with no lightning, a few with lightning but not too impressive, but i got one that i really like. that one made it all seem worth while. i wanna get into that a lil more when i get my new camera and remote.

 

[JamesMartin]

Remote? So you can hide from the storm?

Good to know other people that do it don't get 100% perfect shots everytime You see some photos on National Geographic etc.. and they are so awsome, then there are mine.... hmmm... yeah well..

Oh well, I shall keep hunting and see how I go

Thanx alot for all the info so far

- James

 

[hobbes28]

Yeah, the remote is awefully handy because you don't have to keep going back to the camera. You can sit on a chair and just click away.

When I lived in South Carolina, we had all sorts of lightning storms and I LOVED going out and trying to get lightning shots. Now, in NH, we don't get that many storms with forked lightning or ground striking lightning. That decreases our chance of getting some of those scary storms we used to get down there when lightning would strike houses in your neighborhood but sure does take away from the storm hunting gene.

Happy hunting.

 

[doenoe]

yeah, remotes are wicked. Another good thing about them is, when you have the camera on bulb mode. You click once and the shutter opens and when you click the remote a second time, the shutter closes. Can have really long exposures then. That can come in handy when shooting lightning.
oh, this is how it works for the Canon EOS 350D, dont know about other cameras.

We also dont have alot of lightning here. Think we have about 4 or 5 good storms to take pics a year. Kinda sucks, but you cant win 'em all.

 

[1mask]

I have a Minolta 7Hi digital camera and I use the bulb feature on it to capture lightning.

Unfortunately with lightning you never really know where it's going to be. I was lucky to catch the pic below purely by accident a few weeks ago. It was centered perfectly. However, the strikes after it were amazingly much more spectacular but of course I kept the camera in the same place hoping for another central one... and they were all just out of the picture! :hail:

 

[JamesMartin]

1Mask,

That is a very kewl pic indeed Well done.

I like the idea of the remote, although I don't know over where you guys are but down-under when there are storms, there is also wind.. I hold my camera due to paranoia (... hmmm...) you know what I mean?
I do have a kewl tripod, although the camera still moves around alittle (you can tell alot when you look zoomed up on alot of the pics (movement haze)).

So I think the remote is kewl, although I still like the idea of being around my camera incase it falls... it is my baby

Doenoe,

Back on the topic of Beardies I breed them down here, and that one looks like it has had a red-phase parent or grandparent somewhere along the way, good buy if it was sold as normal, colored are more expensive. Most people sell them as normal cause the color will not come out untill they are a few months old. Anyways, good to see our babies have made it all the way to the Netherlands .

- James

 

[malachite]

You don't really "chase" storms, you outrun them and then stand in front of them. Then you hide in your truck and hope for the best after burrying your tripod legs down a foot and setting for bulb.