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We are promised a warm day with a strong possibility of a late afternoon or evening thunderstorm. As my balcony looks over the ocean I thought that it might be a good time to try for a few lightning shots. I have done a search, but have not found the info that I am looking for.

Basically I need ideas on a starting point for exposure and apeture. Any ideas?

Set it on a long exposure say 10 seconds or 20 seconds, or even bulb mode. Aperture use f8 - f11.

My usual trick is to stop down enough to get a long exposure, but to expose the scene for almost normal metering.

Ie, without any lightning around, stop it down to around 5sec and use the f-value from that. Then basically you have to hope that while you are exposing the sensor, a lightning strike occurs. The lag between you seeing the bolt and pressing the shutter is too much.

I have used this technique moderately successfully in the past.

Dion are you suggesting shutter priority mode?

Oneputt wrote:Dion are you suggesting shutter priority mode?

I would suggest using that to obtain a reasonable exposure of the background (if you want to have at least some background in the photo, rather than just a lightning bolt on a black background). Then use those values and transfer to manual mode.

Basically you want to expose it as if it were a night scene, with a bolt of lightning for extra effect.

Actually ... I just realise ... you'll be shooting out into darkness (the ocean) ... so that might be a bit hard as there is no background. When I shoot I shoot over the city or something, so I expose the city for a night shot and the lightning still comes through as its not such a heavily stopped down / long exposure.

If I aim a little south I could pick up some buildings so your method might work.

Owen I guess that the shutter duration would depend on the frequency of flashes?

Hi oneputt. I tend to do it in longer exposures to avoid constantly pressing the shutter release. If using a remote then just set it on bulb and wait for the flash. Of course if it's open too long then you'll get noise and possible over exposure, but don't underestimate how much the lightning will light up the area either.

good post Oneputt... im waiting for some decent storms so i can go perch myself on my Aunts balcony up on buderim and capture some lightning fotos of storms rolling right across the sunshine coast.. you can see from caloundra to nearly noosa.. .. should be a good location i think

Tim

Tim at this stage storms are not looking likely

Oneputt,

I am in a motel at Carindale at present, last night we had a cracker of a storm in this area, just in now and there's a bit more lightning to the west of Albany Creek, not sure where you are in relation to here but it seems storm season is upon us.

Max

A storm jsut passed Melbourne. Went out to try and take some shots, but didn't get any decent lightning shots. It was just bright flashes with no chains :S

What settings do people use to take there lightning shots? have had a couple of storms lately.. and being able to see mountains from my backyard.. they'd make a good backdrop if i could work out how to setup for a few flashes

Cheers

Tim

Ozimax the storm was a bit of a fizzer on the coast. A little sheet lightning and some welcome rain, but not much esle. It is a little early in the season though.

There is a thread on the Weatherzone forums where they chat about which camera is best for weather/lightning shots. Settings for best shots have (from memory) been discussed at length in this thread:
http://www.weatherzone.com.au/cgi-bin/u ... 1;t=003607

cheers
Mark