I went out the other night to try my hand at this... lets just say it was a huge dissapointment.
For those have have successfully photographed lightening what settings did you use.
Shutter speed and f/stop?
I had my f/stop cranked wide open. I think it was around f/3.2 or somewhere in that neighborhood... and tried a couple different shutter speeds... all I got was blackness.
Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks
Posted by Bill Fach on February 18, 2008 at 12:26 AM
Kevin: If you're just hoping to hit a streak while the shutter is open you have to set an exposure manually that leaves the shutter open for several seconds. Most of the time use f22 and a low ISO. The lightning will definitely register if you have a burst while the shutter is open. I'll often set the aperture at its smallest opening and then use the bulb setting on manual to leave the shutter open until there's a flash.
Now that's the old fashioned way. The easy way is to get a lightning trigger. I've personally never used one but know folks who do and swear by them. You might do a search with lightning trigger in the subject line and see what you come up with.>=))>
Posted by Dan Borzynski on February 18, 2008 at 12:53 AM
I'd take Bill's advice - it is good.
Not trying to sound sarcastic, but if you were waiting until you saw the lightning (which I suspect was the case from your settings), you didn't have a prayer of getting anything. By the time your brain has registered the flash and started the signal to your hand, it is over with. A lot of the perceived longevity of the flash is due to it being so intensely bright. Just think of what you see after you glance at the noon sun, or spend a few seconds looking at a bare lightbulb. Lightning is brighter.
Posted by Stan Rose on February 18, 2008 at 6:09 AM
Dan is incorrect. As a storm chaser and meteorologist, I have had much success in capturing both day and nightime shots without a trigger. The great thing about lightning is that there are often many "return stokes", meaning once the path has been set by the initial leader there are often multiple strikes to follow (in many cases, Dan's perception is reality!) So, if you have good reflexes you can usually get decent results by hitting the shutter (a remote helps immensely) the instant you detect a discharge. But that does take some practice. To answer your question, here is what you need to do:
1) obviously, use a tripod, and a remote trigger if possible.
2) Dont know what camera you used, but with most DSLRs you'll have to ensure the focus is manually set.
3) smaller aperatures will give you decent results, but i recommend the sharpest stop for your particular lens (often around f/9, i find that often works the best)
4) As for exposure, this depends greatly on the storm and the conditions, as well as the effect you're looking for. But assuming you are shooting in complete darkness, and the storm is about average, you will probably do quite well with exposures of between roughly 5 and 20 seconds. Depending on conditions, it could be anything from 1 second to many minutes.
Good luck--let me know if you need any additional info, and i look forward to see some lightning shots from you!
Posted by Dan Borzynski on February 18, 2008 at 1:07 PM
Thanks for the correction!
I usually try to stay away from lightning in the first place, especially after having coming uncomfortably close to being hit on at least two occasions.
Thanks for the input.... I am shooting a Nikon D80.
I already had it in manual mode so I could set the shutter and apature. How would I go about selecting or setting the "bulb setting" If I understand correctly... you push the shutter button and it opens..... you push it again... and it closes.
Anyone know how to set this on the D80?
Thanks for all the help
Posted by Buck Ward on February 18, 2008 at 9:30 PM
I recently went to an art show and there was a photographer there who specialized in lightning pictures. I wish I could remember his name, but I can't. He had quite a few extraordinary lightning pictures. He said he would go out in the middle of the night. He had a lightning detector that would let him know of lightning within 40 miles.
Of one particular photo, he said that he had returned to that particular site about 50 times over a two year period to get the picture. His exposure was three minutes, although the lighting bolt recorded had occurred during the first minute of exposure.
Hope my hearsay is helpful.
Posted by Greg Cope on February 18, 2008 at 10:22 PM
Not that this adds much to the already great info given, but here goes. I've only successfully photographed lightning once. It was at night and very dark, so I set my camera on manual, stopped down a bit, manually focused to infinity (at about 25mm), and set my camera on bulb (basically doing everything Stan mentioned in his post). I essentially just hoped for the best and ended the exposures after several bolts came down - I can't say what the exposure times were, but I'd guess somewhere between 5-30 seconds each. In the end I got some pretty cool shots, including what I call one of the luckiest shots of my life, although this technique would only work at night. If I lived in an area where lightning was a more frequent event and I wanted to photograph more of it, I might invest in a light trigger.
Kevin, you are correct that you rotate the shutter speed dial to set it on "bulb". To take a picture with the "bulb" setting you must hold down the shutter button during the entire exposure. This is where a shutter release cord comes in handy, since they usually have a lock on it and you won't get camera shake from holding it down with your finger. I'm not sure what type of shutter release you need for the D80. My D100 has a mechanical shutter release and my D200 has a 10-pin electronic one.
I have had great success taking lightening pictures at 20" and 30" exposure, which I set directly.
I have bought a shutter release cable (just bought it)... but I havent had an opportunity to take it out of the packaging.... supposedly my camera also has another option (according to the manual).. it is marked with a -- symbol instead of bulb.... If I understand correctly... you press the shutter button and it stays open.... press again and shutter closes....
Cant wait for the next storm so I can try these new techinques out.
Posted by Rick Dunn on February 20, 2008 at 9:23 AM
Kevin - can't help with the D80 bulb details, but there's at least one other approach that will increase your odds of capturing a strike even without a lightning trigger. The lightning strike image on my home page was made during daylight hours. I increased my odds of capturing a strike by using a small aperture (f/16 or f/22), the lowest ISO possible, and putting a couple of filters (neutral density and polarizer) on the lens, all of which create longer exposure times.
I haven't used the bulb setting, but imagine that it works best at night when you can leave the shutter open for long periods of time and not overexpose the image. I don't think that will work so well if you're trying to shoot during the day because you'll obviously have to worry about overall exposure. The best approach there is either the trigger, or increase your odds by getting your exposure times to be longer.
With the darker light of the storm, the small aperture and the filters, I was getting exposure times of 15-30 seconds. Since timing between strikes was 1-2 minutes, it made it tough to time it just right and I had a lot of exposures that captured nothing. Of 200 or so exposures, about 20 had strikes, and only 1 had it just where I wanted. So prepare for a lot of trial and error, and hope for some good fortune!
Posted by Scott Reeves on February 20, 2008 at 9:42 PM
I use bulb setting (available on D200 and D300, assume so on D80), MC26 remote, usually about f/8, focased at infinity or close to it. This is all for nightime. Using Sandisk III or IV, I'll expose for 5-7 seconds and release. This lets me immediately re-open the shutter even though the previous image is still processing. Works for RAW or JPEG. Golden rule - inevitably the best strike will be when the shutter is closed. Thus, my ultimate goal is to keep the shutter open as much as possible during the storm. Having an extra mem card handy will help for long storms. You can do the math, but let's say 10 6-second exposures per minute, 300 images per card will give you what - 30 minutes of exposure. Also, you don't have to release after each strike, so you may get a few strikes on one image during high activity. And at lower ISO's you can leave the shutter open for as long as you want, but if you leave it open too long there will proably be a delay while the prior image is processing. See golden rule.
Discussion
12 repliesFor those have have successfully photographed lightening what settings did you use.
Shutter speed and f/stop?
I had my f/stop cranked wide open. I think it was around f/3.2 or somewhere in that neighborhood... and tried a couple different shutter speeds... all I got was blackness.
Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks
Now that's the old fashioned way. The easy way is to get a lightning trigger. I've personally never used one but know folks who do and swear by them. You might do a search with lightning trigger in the subject line and see what you come up with.>=))>
Not trying to sound sarcastic, but if you were waiting until you saw the lightning (which I suspect was the case from your settings), you didn't have a prayer of getting anything. By the time your brain has registered the flash and started the signal to your hand, it is over with. A lot of the perceived longevity of the flash is due to it being so intensely bright. Just think of what you see after you glance at the noon sun, or spend a few seconds looking at a bare lightbulb. Lightning is brighter.
1) obviously, use a tripod, and a remote trigger if possible.
2) Dont know what camera you used, but with most DSLRs you'll have to ensure the focus is manually set.
3) smaller aperatures will give you decent results, but i recommend the sharpest stop for your particular lens (often around f/9, i find that often works the best)
4) As for exposure, this depends greatly on the storm and the conditions, as well as the effect you're looking for. But assuming you are shooting in complete darkness, and the storm is about average, you will probably do quite well with exposures of between roughly 5 and 20 seconds. Depending on conditions, it could be anything from 1 second to many minutes.
Good luck--let me know if you need any additional info, and i look forward to see some lightning shots from you!
I usually try to stay away from lightning in the first place, especially after having coming uncomfortably close to being hit on at least two occasions.
I already had it in manual mode so I could set the shutter and apature. How would I go about selecting or setting the "bulb setting" If I understand correctly... you push the shutter button and it opens..... you push it again... and it closes.
Anyone know how to set this on the D80?
Thanks for all the help
Of one particular photo, he said that he had returned to that particular site about 50 times over a two year period to get the picture. His exposure was three minutes, although the lighting bolt recorded had occurred during the first minute of exposure.
Hope my hearsay is helpful.
the manual is not very clear... I am assuming that you just rotate the dial up... until it goes to bulb instead of timeframe (sec / min)
would this be correct?
I have had great success taking lightening pictures at 20" and 30" exposure, which I set directly.
Good-luck
Cant wait for the next storm so I can try these new techinques out.
I haven't used the bulb setting, but imagine that it works best at night when you can leave the shutter open for long periods of time and not overexpose the image. I don't think that will work so well if you're trying to shoot during the day because you'll obviously have to worry about overall exposure. The best approach there is either the trigger, or increase your odds by getting your exposure times to be longer.
With the darker light of the storm, the small aperture and the filters, I was getting exposure times of 15-30 seconds. Since timing between strikes was 1-2 minutes, it made it tough to time it just right and I had a lot of exposures that captured nothing. Of 200 or so exposures, about 20 had strikes, and only 1 had it just where I wanted. So prepare for a lot of trial and error, and hope for some good fortune!