Lightning Photography 101
I had a bunch of requests yesterday for techniques on lightning photography. Well, here it is in a nutshell. First, find a lightning storm. Then you need a comera with an adjustable shutter speed setting. I use manual mode and set the shutterspeed to 30 seconds and the ISO to 100 for less noise, I use an f-5.6 tp f-22. If you can, set the camera to manual focus and set for the farthest focal setting. Oh yeah, you need a tri-pod for this. So with the settings all set just shoot the shot and wait for the lightning to pop and depress the shutter to stop the exposure and repeat as often as you can, and compose the shot as the storm passes. Its pretty easy and just takes a bit of luck and practice. The shot I’m posting from Rawlins Wyoming was my first lightning pic, I was so happy!!! The second from Everwood Texas shows my favorite lightning, cloud to cloud, you could almost taste the ozone…:-)
Later….Ed
April 23, 2009 at 6:58 am
I’ve told you all along you should had been a teacher like dad and sis!!! Nice.
April 23, 2009 at 7:59 am
Thanks for the info, Ed. You know the Tampa Bay area is a lightning capital of somewhere (USA, World, etc?) and we see a lot of it from June through September so I’m saving these instructions and will put my camera on manual and try to capture some of those shots.
Yours are fantastic!
April 23, 2009 at 8:24 am
Dang near makes me want to go out and buy a good camera…..
April 23, 2009 at 9:25 am
Wow, these are awsome!
April 23, 2009 at 12:51 pm
Wow some great shots! I love lightening but we hardly ever have storms here that have much.
April 23, 2009 at 1:35 pm
Yep, you should have been a teacher Ed. We don’t usually get much in the way of lightning ’til June but I’m going to make a huge effort to get some shots and not hide
April 25, 2009 at 6:27 am
Wow, very impressive. Can’t believe it is as easy as you make it sound.