Shooting lightning

WetNeck · Feb 3, 2005

I am trying to get get a good lightning shot and I just cant seem to get it right... heres wht I did..

I went about two miles outside the city where there was almost no light from the city lights, I pointed the camera into the sky, pulled the cable release and left the shutter open untill the lightning burst, then closed the shutter, I have used this technique for shooting fireworks and had great success, what should I have done different?

mentos_007 · Feb 3, 2005

maybe the apperture? or maybe paste here some shots and I'll know what you did wrong

but keep trying

Big Mike · Feb 3, 2005

What was your result with that technique? What was wonrg with the resulting photos?

darich · Feb 3, 2005

sounds to me like they may be overexposed. holding the shutter open until the lightning flashes isn't a "controlled" exposure since the shutter time isn't necessarily going to produce a correct exposure. The shutter time may be 1 sec or 30secs.....so the longer it's open, the more likely it is to over expose.

I managed to get one decent shot from my bedroom window and found the best way was to select shutter priority shooting mode. lengthen the exposure to a set length....the longer the better since it increases your chances of catching the lightning. The downside is that you never know where or when it's going to strike so it's very hit and miss.
Here's my attempt

if only i'd aimed a bit more to the right and up a bit!!
The image has been darkened slightly in photoshop to enhance the lightning.
Exposure was 3.2secs and f/22. Canon Digital Rebel for anyone interested!!

Big Mike · Feb 3, 2005

If there is little or no light, over exposure shouldn't be a problem. The camera's meter probably won't render a proper exposure with those shutter speeds anyway.

Are you shooting film or digital?