Taking Lightning Shots

hobbes28 · Jul 12, 2004

Okay, I have been trying to get a good lightning shot but have taken a ton of pictures of regular night sky.

I am using a Kodak DX6490 so the longest I can leave the shutter open is for 16 seconds. The smallest aperature that I have is an f8.

Besides sitting in the same spot for hours on the occasion that a storm will come at night, what else can I do? I have read somewhere that you can get an ND filter and it will allow you to leave the shutter open in the daytime but I don't want to get something else without knowing what good it will do for me.

Sharkbait · Jul 13, 2004

You're on the same track I used for these:

This was my first attempt at lightning photography. Granted, they're not the best shots, and granted this wasn't a massive electrical storm, but these were running with (if I remember right) 15 sec shutters. I took 140+ shots, and these were the only two that caught lightning strikes. I've got a shutter trigger lock on my remote release, so I just set the tripod up, locked the shutter release down (so it would just continue taking those 15 sec exposures) and let it run for 25 min or so.

hobbes28 · Jul 15, 2004

Shark said:
This was my first attempt at lightning photography. Granted, they're not the best shots, and granted this wasn't a massive electrical storm, but these were running with (if I remember right) 15 sec shutters. I took 140+ shots, and these were the only two that caught lightning strikes. I've got a shutter trigger lock on my remote release, so I just set the tripod up, locked the shutter release down (so it would just continue taking those 15 sec exposures) and let it run for 25 min or so.

Have you ever used ND filters for daytime shots??

hobbes28 · Jul 21, 2004

I know I can't stand up to Shark's quality but I took your advice about leaving the shutter button pressed for about half an hour. I took over a hundred shots and ended up with five. I thought this one was the best.

photonoob · Jul 21, 2004

Those are really nice :lol:

Sharkbait · Jul 21, 2004

That's a sweet shot, hobbesy. I think it's somehow much more powerful when the lightning is just creasing the entire sky and not going to ground. That's awesome!

And no, never tried an ND filter... I haven't learned too much about filters yet, beyond the basic polarizer and whatnot.

hobbes28 · Jul 21, 2004

Coming from you, I'll take that as a huge compliment. I was on your site a while back and just have to say that you take some awesome pictures.

As for the filters, I think I'll just buy some and try them. They only run a few bucks each.