Lightning Pics for C&C

NC Labman · Jun 10, 2009

Lightning was working pretty hard north of my house last night and having never shot lightning before I thought I would give it a whirl. I wasn't sure how to approach this so I set the camera to full manual and adjusted shutter speed/aperture until the result looked right to me. Most were shot at 20 second shutter and 22 aperture. I have cropped to improve composition on some of these, but that has also made them grainy. I think the third shot is my favorite. How would you have approached differently or improved the results?

Joves · Jun 10, 2009

Those came out nice. Yes they are grainy but, you did catch the lightning, which was the point.

ShotGunNik · Jun 10, 2009

the third shot is my favorite, but I agree on the grainy look. What's your set up?

bigboi3 · Jun 10, 2009

I wish we had lightning storms here in Cali... great capture of them!!

NC Labman · Jun 10, 2009

Canon 40D with 28-135mm lens. Shot at ISO 400, focal length varied but was generally between 50 and 85mm. I shot a large portion of the sky and then cropped to achieve the composition I wanted. If I had it to do over again I would have taken a smaller section of sky so less cropping was required. I have a few more things I want to try tonight to edit them.

ShotGunNik · Jun 10, 2009

Oh ok nice, 40D. Great lense too! Yea, I can see how the cropping would provide more grain of a look too. I've never taken shots at night, so I'm sure its pretty challenging lol.

Yea, stuff like this is probably the ONLY reason why I miss living in Texas, great lighting storms lol.

NC Labman · Jun 10, 2009

I tried some noise reduction and different crops. Any better?

paulpippin29 · Jun 10, 2009

Yes sir, these last two are dead on I think. I've been trying to catch lightning forever now, but every time I try, it starts pouring down rain, so the camera has to be put up. These are very inspiring however, and very nice to look at. Job well done

musicaleCA · Jun 10, 2009

Yep, those shots are purty. Well done. And noise reduction helps. However...

It may seem counter-intuitive at first, but with long-exposures, and particularly those at night, you should shoot at the lowest ISO available. Noise is caused by stray light hitting the sensor at sideways (and other odd) angles, but it's usually not as intense as the light coming through the lens. However, the sensor will register that stray light when it enters a sensor "pixel" if the ISO is set high enough. Hope you follow...

Now, think of the amount of noise you get shooting at ISO 400, or 800, at a decently fast shutter speed; say 1/60 or 1/125. It's not bad (well, depending on the camera; on my 450D the 1600 setting is nasty), but the noise will likely be noticeable. Now think of how much more stray light gets a chance to drunkenly crash into your sensor when it's exposing for much longer, like 20 whole seconds. You'll get quite a bit more visible noise in the end result.

Furthermore, going to a lower ISO will let you stop-up the aperture a little to reduce the diffraction that starts creeping in at around f/16 on APS-C's.

KAikens318 · Jun 10, 2009

I really wish we had thunderstorms like that around here in NH. I would love to capture something like that. I was thinking about storm chasing at one point but I don't really live where there are severe storms! Great job!

Josh220 · Jun 11, 2009

Great shots. The 2 refined images are much better IMO

benlonghair · Jun 11, 2009

paulpippin29 said:
I've been trying to catch lightning forever now, but every time I try, it starts pouring down rain, so the camera has to be put up.

The easy answer to that is get a nice aluminum car shelter or something and shoot from under that.

(Proud graduate of the Homer Simpson School of Lightning Safety)

EDIT: Awesome pics, Labman... lightning is something that I really want to try to shoot. Now that I'm more or less done saving for a camera, I'm starting to save for a storm chasing vacation next summer.

sburatorul · Jun 11, 2009

what software did you use for the noise reduction? the results are great.

oops. somebody has a dirty sensor

NC Labman · Jun 11, 2009

I used the software that comes with Canon cameras, I believe they call it Digital Photo Professional (DPP). In addition to utilizing the noise reduction I also made the image darker. Yes - I have a dirty sensor. My project for tonight is to learn how to clean that up in my software. I want to invest in Photoshop Elements, but the budget doesn't stretch that far just yet. Maybe later in the year I can purchase it.

KAikens318 · Jun 11, 2009

benlonghair said:
paulpippin29 said:

I've been trying to catch lightning forever now, but every time I try, it starts pouring down rain, so the camera has to be put up.

Click to expand...

The easy answer to that is get a nice aluminum car shelter or something and shoot from under that.

(Proud graduate of the Homer Simpson School of Lightning Safety)

EDIT: Awesome pics, Labman... lightning is something that I really want to try to shoot. Now that I'm more or less done saving for a camera, I'm starting to save for a storm chasing vacation next summer.