A little lightning, anyone?

Phranquey · Mar 4, 2008

With all of these storms around, I decided to take advantage, and do a little chasing. I took a load of pics, and did get a lot of strikes, but I believe these were the better of the bunch. Any C&C welcome. I downsized them for upload-ability. They look a bit better at full size.
#1 is a bit on the grainy side...I was shooting at a higher ISO earlier, and didn't remember to turn it back down before I left...

I don't recommend you try this at home.... :lol:

Ajay · Mar 4, 2008

Cool shots! I can't decide which one I like the most. I love how the strikes go off very spindly like a scratch in the sky on the second one. And I can't believe how many actually touched ground in the third! And the first one is very dramatic. I like em.

Kod3y · Mar 4, 2008

Wow, veary nice. how do you take thous? do you have like a sensor? or is it just your super human reflexes ^^

kevinblahh · Mar 5, 2008

good shots

errant_star · Mar 5, 2008

These are fantastic! My favourite is the 2nd for the colours and the composition! :thumbsup:

rezzy · Mar 5, 2008

its those type of pictures that makes you realize how powerful and beautiful mother nature really is.

Black & White · Mar 5, 2008

Cool.

Trenton Romulox · Mar 5, 2008

The second one has the best composition. The third one has the best lightning. But, I'm gonna have to go with the second one as my favorite.

doenoe · Mar 5, 2008

very nice. Im going for #3, i just love multiple strikes in a shot. Good stuff

John_Olexa · Mar 5, 2008

:thumbup: Nice work! I like # 3

Renair · Mar 5, 2008

Pretty amazing and terrifying at the same time. I watched a BBC documentry once, WILD WEATHER and they show that lightning actually shoots from the ground up and not the other way round.... pretty mad!

MarcusM · Mar 5, 2008

Nice, #3 is my favorite. Looks like War of the Worlds or something!

Trenton Romulox · Mar 5, 2008

The more I think about it, I think I'm gonna have to say the third one is my favorite instead of the second.

What were your settings for these shots? Not that it matters really, we NEVER get lightning like that in Maine. And besides, if we ever did, there'd be too many damn trees in the way. Stupid Maine. Oh well.

Tuner571 · Mar 5, 2008

Nice shots man, I really like #3. Nice work!

Phranquey · Mar 5, 2008

From a noob to the site, thank you for all of the comments. Greatly appreciated.

do you have like a sensor? or is it just your super human reflexes ^^

I wish I had reflexes that fast, you could call them "lightning quick"...:greenpbl:

What were your settings for these shots?

First, and foremost...
Seriously, this can be dangerous, so if you are going to try it, be very, very careful. Make sure you are not on top of a hill, or the highest point in a given area. Take every precaution you can, and even then, make no mistake, you are placing yourself in harm's way.

Now, how I do it.

First, what I do is set up about 2 to 4 miles in front of an incoming storm. (In pic #2, you can see blue sky on the right, with the storm rolling in on the left.) I will mount the camera (with wide angle lens to get the best coverage) on either a tripod or a Kirk window mount, and start clicking away. As the storm moves over me, and it starts raining, I will quickly pack up and try to get ahead of the storm again, and do the same thing over.

At night, I set the camera on manual, run at about f/8, and hold the shutter open for 10 to 20 seconds, depending on any ambient light. While the shutter is open, you are just hoping a bolt hits in the area your lens is pointing. If you get nothing, the scene will be very underexposed, as the bolts become your "fill", as you see in the foreground of pic #3.
Click...wait, wait, wait...Click...wait, wait, wait....

During day shots, I will mount an ND8, set the camera to Aperture Priority, and run it all the way down to f/22. This gives you the maximum open time with the shutter (usually 2 to 6 seconds), and still get a properly exposed scenery...Pic #2. Even if the bolt didn't hit, the picture would have looked the same. Very important during daylight shooting is the use of a remote. Since the shutter is open for an extended period, you do not want residual vibration by having to manually press the release.
Click...wait....Click...wait...Click...wait

AGAIN, please be careful if you are going to try this. With picture #3, those 4 very powerful bolts all hit within about 15 seconds of exposure time. The last two I actually felt the concussion as much as I heard thunder, which means I overstepped my bounds on how close I actually was.