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Hi All,
I went out last week to try to capture some lightning during a storm. I had just read about how to capture lightning on the forum and thought I would have a go..... My question is how do you get the foreground light? It was very dark and I had very long shutter speeds and the foreground is still pitch black. Is it just because of the darkness? My lightning also looks a bit wussy!
Also, we are expecting more storms this week and I would like to try again so could someone please clarify for me: how long should I hold my finget on the shutter button in bulb mode? I was having shutter speeds of up to 90 secs and I wasn't sure if I should make them that long or just a few seconds. I had it on manual focus, set to infinity, between f5 and f8 on the kit lens, manual mode and bulb. Below are hopefully a couple of the offending articles!
Thanks,
Marvin

or perhaps not......

The links
http://www.pixspot.com/displayimage.php ... 0014&pos=8
http://www.pixspot.com/displayimage.php ... 0014&pos=0

Hi Marvin - I gotta say I can't see too much wrong with the second pic, but it may benefit from a little PP.

Would you mind sending me the original and I'll have a bit of a play - see what I can come up with.

I really like the tree in that second one, and have a few ideas.

Marvin wrote:or perhaps not......

The links
http://www.pixspot.com/displayimage.php ... 0014&pos=8
http://www.pixspot.com/displayimage.php ... 0014&pos=0

Alright - now you've gone and changed the order on me - the first one is the one I'm talking about now!

Thanks Sheepie, I'd love you to!
OK this probably sounds dumb but should I send you the NEF or a resized jpg?

Marvin wrote:OK this probably sounds dumb but should I send you the NEF or a resized jpg?

Thinking this through now - I just tried zipping a NEF file - it goes quite nicely down to around 3.5meg, so would email ok. Am trying to think of a better way, but am coming up cold atm.

Hopefully you have broadband! hehe

Nope, just very slow dial up!!! Us poor people in hicksville can't get broadband! I'll zip it and e-mail it now. You'll have to wait for a while though!

The thing to remember is that your exposure time (seems wrong to call it shutter speed!) won't affect the brightness of the lightning. That is determined by your aperture and ISO setting. Once you've got that nailed, the trick then becomes using a time which gives you your desired amount of exposure on the foreground. (Although if the lightning is close enough to illuminate the foreground substantially, that will affect it too.) A long exposure gives you more chance of getting the lightning strokes as well.

Having said all this, I can count the number of decent lightning shots I've taken on the fingers of one finger...(well almost) and they were with film!

Good luck.

Marvin wrote:... My lightning also looks a bit wussy!...

Gee I didn't think the lightning looked wussy at all, the part I find the most captivating is the cloud formation in pos=0, it looks as though the cloud is "leaking" into the ground... That looks great...

Cheers,
mudder

OK - very quick play with your shot...




or maybe crop in a bit and get a few more than just one pic...




I'll have a bit more of a play tomorrow

Here's another variation

Hey there Marvin, hows it going! You guys have had one great week for storms! They are pretty good shots indeed, but don't tell me you are holding the shutter down with ya finger?! You gotta get yourself a cheap universal remote to make it easy.
Lightning is an addiction. A bit like the search for the perfect wave, once you get your first capture you just can't stop and actively seek out storms.
I have many lightning pics, my favourite is probably this one.

The colour is as it was and was probably due in part to the rain behind the strike. Taken with the cam on a tripod sitting on the front seat of the car and looking out the window to avoid the rain..
I always shoot at the lowest ISO, sunny WB, lens on infinity and bulb. Aperture really depends on the storm and distance from the lightning. Smaller apertures the closer to help avoid blowouts, but never above f8. I just point, leave the shutter open until I get the strike I am looking for then close. It has been up to 5 mins and as short as 7 seconds.

I have a heap of pics from the OZ day storms down my way, I chased the lightning but it was either raining or I made the wrong "chase" decisions. Can't always get it right! Great structure though - http://www.adam.com.au/timkat/25-jan/index.htm
Keep snapping those lightning pics, the bug may well have bitten you permanently!
Cheers,
Tim

Great capture Hillsrain, especially on the last one with the purple sky. Sheepie really like your PP work.

Hi Tim! Long time, no see!! Thanks for the advice - very useful. We have another storm brewing as I type. I love your lightning capture - the colours are great! You'll probably get some action tonight too.
Sheepie & PhilipB - Thanks for the great pp. Can I ask you what you did? I would love to be able to get results from a "quick play"!

Marvin,
I just simply selected the clouds area and copied it into a new layer, I then played with the levels of that layer until the clouds stood out and flattened the image. The line where the clouds were selected was a bit obvious so I used the history brush along that line to smudge it a bit.
I then cropped it and made a final adjustment to the levels.