a_auger
TPF Noob!
So we had this HUGE lightning storm tonight that lasted more than an hour. It was the first one since my arrival in Romania to have happened at night. I've always wanted to try getting a lightning storm photo, so tonight was a wonderful chance.
Here was my setup: Canon 7D with Sigma 17-70 at 17mm, 0.6 sec, f/2.8 and 500 iso on tripod by the windowsill. I don't have a remote shutter so I had to hold the shutter button without moving. Not great for camera shake, but then again I wasn't going for pro shots, just trying to see if it works... Camera was set to high-speed continuous (low speed wouldn't have mattered) and I held the shutter until the card was almost full. 1536 RAW pics were taken, about 32GB in about 20-25 minutes. Out of those, 9 had actual lightning and of those, 4 were usable.
These were taken from the window of my room. There was a pesky bug screen that rotated outwards that could not be removed, so it severely limited my angle of view. I was stuck with the tripod by the window with the camera in portrait orientation so the frame and the screen weren't in the shot.
I adjusted the colours a little to bring out the lightning and brought the WB down so the sky seemed more blue as opposed to the weird purple that came OOC.
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Overall I'm pretty satisfied with the outcome, not bad for a first try! Some pictures had so much light in them that the sky was completely blown, despite the total darkness of the hour. Next time I'll go for a faster shutter speed. Some photos, especially the tighter crops seen a little noisy too, so a lower ISO next time would be in order too!
Here was my setup: Canon 7D with Sigma 17-70 at 17mm, 0.6 sec, f/2.8 and 500 iso on tripod by the windowsill. I don't have a remote shutter so I had to hold the shutter button without moving. Not great for camera shake, but then again I wasn't going for pro shots, just trying to see if it works... Camera was set to high-speed continuous (low speed wouldn't have mattered) and I held the shutter until the card was almost full. 1536 RAW pics were taken, about 32GB in about 20-25 minutes. Out of those, 9 had actual lightning and of those, 4 were usable.
These were taken from the window of my room. There was a pesky bug screen that rotated outwards that could not be removed, so it severely limited my angle of view. I was stuck with the tripod by the window with the camera in portrait orientation so the frame and the screen weren't in the shot.
I adjusted the colours a little to bring out the lightning and brought the WB down so the sky seemed more blue as opposed to the weird purple that came OOC.
1:
2:
3:
4:
Overall I'm pretty satisfied with the outcome, not bad for a first try! Some pictures had so much light in them that the sky was completely blown, despite the total darkness of the hour. Next time I'll go for a faster shutter speed. Some photos, especially the tighter crops seen a little noisy too, so a lower ISO next time would be in order too!