White Lightening!

ronlane · May 8, 2013

Having storms roll through this evening so I thought I would try to capture some lightening. With a little (okay a lot) of help from Charlie with hyperfocus and I think it went okay. (Other than having to take a lot of photos to get one that I thought was good).

Any c&c on this one? Ways that I can improve it for next time?

untitled-1-2-Edit.jpg by Ron_Lane, on Flickr

Derrel · May 8, 2013

Well, you have some NICE bolts!!!!

It's tough to predict what the strikes will look like...it's kind of a guessing game. You live in a part of the USA that gets a lot of strikes per square mile, so that's a plus for photographing it. My region has the fewest strikes per square mile, about 1.5 to 1.8 per square mile, or less, per year, according to The National Geographic Society's study on USA lightning patterns and frequency. I dunno...the "best" shots I have seen have some kind of a strong foreground element, like a house or barn, or a lake or whatnot, and then the photographer opens the shutter and gets a "landscape + lightning".

In your case for example, that tree in the lower left...maybe if you had zoomed back or moved back (whatever...) and included the tree and a bit of the ground it would have given more sense of scale. A silo, or pair of silos + a barn would be a cool foreground element. Anyway, good catch Ron. This could be composited into any number of future nightscapes, so...keep that in mind.

Geaux · May 8, 2013

I always find an interesting foreground + lightning a better image.

Great catch on the bolts though, very cool formation

ronlane · May 8, 2013

Thanks Derrel for the c&c. I totally see what you are saying. I was standing at the edge of my garage shooting over the houses across the street. I could have included the roof tops and high-line wires but thought that would distract from the subject (the light show). I can see what you mean about a composite.

TimothyJinx · May 8, 2013

Good catch! Agree with others regarding the composition.

ronlane · May 9, 2013

Thanks TimothyJinx. Sometimes, I just have to scream, thinking that I finally got it together with the focus and post and composition, only to find out that one of them is not right. But honestly, even with the comp issues, I still like this one.

Frequency · May 9, 2013

Good one; yes if there were more of Earth it would have a greater impact...wish you more lightning

ronlane · May 9, 2013

Thanks Frequency. As Derrel mentioned, we get our share of it here in Central US. It's always fun to watch it and now that I understand how to capture it, it's even more fun.

bc_steve · May 9, 2013

I agree with the other posters, something in the foreground would make this a better shot, but it is still pretty cool!

TimothyJinx · May 9, 2013

ronlane said:
Thanks TimothyJinx. Sometimes, I just have to scream, thinking that I finally got it together with the focus and post and composition, only to find out that one of them is not right. But honestly, even with the comp issues, I still like this one.

No, I wouldn't say one of them wasn't right. I think some are just suggesting ways to make it better. It's still a very cool shot!

ronlane · May 9, 2013

I understand what you are saying TimothyJinx. I say not right because I purposely composed this without the roof tops and high-line wires because of the high-line wires, thinking that it would be poorly composed with all of that in it. Meaning that I was thinking about the composition of the photo just going the opposite (wrong) direction with it.

I do think that it is a good photo of the lightening rods but I do want to learn and get better and make my photos stronger and better. (You could say that I am hard on myself in this way.)

I greatly appreciate the time and effort and help that all of the posters say on here.

cynicaster · May 9, 2013

I've always wanted to try capturing a lightningscape, but have never had a really good opportunity.

What is the general approach? In absence of advice from somebody in the know, I think I'd put the camera on a tripod with remote shutter release, compose the frame, do a hyperfocal focus, stop down to f/16ish, lSO 100, and shutter speed of a few seconds such that a lightning-free sky would be 2 or so stops underexposed. Then, take a few hundred shots, hoping that lightning strikes while my shutter is open. Am I on the right track here?

Derrel · May 9, 2013

cynicaster said:
I've always wanted to try capturing a lightningscape, but have never had a really good opportunity.

What is the general approach? In absence of advice from somebody in the know, I think I'd put the camera on a tripod with remote shutter release, compose the frame, do a hyperfocal focus, stop down to f/16ish, lSO 100, and shutter speed of a few seconds such that a lightning-free sky would be 2 or so stops underexposed. Then, take a few hundred shots, hoping that lightning strikes while my shutter is open. Am I on the right track here?

Here is what I have garnered from articles, plus my own fireworks shooting experiences. I would say focus closer to Infinity rather than the hyperfocal distance. And maybe go with a bit more ISO level, like ISO 200, and set f/8 and not f/16. Lightning, like fireworks, is brighter when it is close than when it is many miles distant, and like fireworks, f/16 is too small of an aperture to make the lightning look bright. A slightly longer shutter-open time, like 15 to 30 seconds, can allow the user to capture more bolts during storms. Of course, in some urban environments, 30 sec at f/8 at ISO 200 is gonna be somewhat bright on the city lights.

Like so many things, there are different ways to approach lightning. Articles written by people who shoot a lot of lightning will have some more of the finer points explored in detail. There are a handful of people who specialize in shooting the big, multi-strike shots over the big cities of the west, like Phoenix, and also over the Great Lakes region where some hellacious lightning storms can whip up.

Eastman Kodak used to have some very detailed, yet short, articles and how-to's on shooting lightning and fireworks. Maybe they still do? I don't know.

ronlane · May 9, 2013

Derrel gives good advice. Here is what I did with this photo. Charlie helped me by giving me this link to hyperfocal. I took that and decided to try a couple of distances. I settle on this shot at 35mm f/11 iso 100 with 15 second exposure. That combination gave me the number 11 feet, which I used to autofocus on my car's headlight then switched it to manual focus. I then set up the composition on the tri-pod and used my remote shutter to fire it. I ended up taking something like 80 photos to get the 1 shot.