One of Mother Nature’s powerful displays can be a blessing or a curse for those starting out with Photographing Lightning from the missed chances and over exposed strikes. I try to compose my shot before hand, making sure that and street lights aren’t going to be a distraction or have something that’ll be moving and show tell tale signs of blur in my final image. My own Neighbourhood isn’t the most Photogenic place so I have scouted out a few locations with shelter close by that’ll offer a decent view of the storm.
Lightning over the Southport Broadwater
It’s become quite addictive for me to go out and Photograph Storms when they present themselves, although this last season wasn’t really that crash hot. One of the main priorities when out chasing storms is to try and stay safe and have somewhere that you can shelter if the storm gets too close. A favourite place for me to shoot is close to the Sundale Bridge
Passing Storm – Sundale Bridge
You really need a good sturdy tripod to help keep your camera stable in the wind, something to help keep your camera dry – I’ve used plastic bags, rain coat sleeves and now have an Optech Rain-Sleeve which you can pick up pretty cheap. A camera remote comes in handy to and like most things these days, you’ll find some cheap alternatives to the camera brands on Ebay for a fraction of the price. My current remote has a range of 200metres which lets me place my camera further out then I’d like to be standing.
Blanket
Depending on how close the Lightning Strikes are, the time of the day or if you have bright lights to contend with will help determine your aperture and how long you can leave your shutter open. I’ll use the lowest ISO my camera allows(which on the 400d is 100) and depending on how far away the storm is, or how light it is will try and keep the shutter open for as long as possible. Blanket was taken around sunset with an Aperture of f/6.3 and shutter speed of 10 seconds. It wasn’t long before I could no longer hold my tripod steady and had to find shelter fast and led me to my most unflattering Lightning composition which yielded 3 decent exposures in two minutes at this stage the strikes were over head so I changed the aperture to f/9 to help save blowing out the exposures.
To compensate over-exposing City Lights and Lightning Strikes I started under-exposing by about 1 stop on the camera’s meter and letting the Lightning be the Fill light. Of course if you’re away from the bright City Lights you could get away with a Bulb Exposure waiting for the strike, I’ve found at Night, 30 seconds would be the longest I’ll leave the shutter open or the street/Building lights will be over exposed or the Boats move around too much in the Broadwater.
No strikes in this 30 second exposure left this a little under exposed compared to the same camera settings used on the image below with Lightning being the Fill light.
I’d start my aperture around f/5.6 with the approaching storm and when the strikes start getting close I’ll change to f/9 . Settings like Aperture and shutter speeds will vary according to light and proximity of the Lightning and finding a spot that you’d like to shoot Storms from and having a dry run to work out your camera settings can help prepare you for the following Storms. If you can, shoot before they become wrapped in rain, you’ll remain dry, your lens element will remain dry. Day time is a whole different ball game and so far I have only managed a few successful strikes. I did buy a Lightning Trigger for my camera but I think it has put a curse on my storm chasing – only once have I got to use it and then for only half an hour. Next day time storms I’ll be trying out my Graduated Neutral Density filters to help extend the shutter speed slightly.
Lightning Photography
One of Mother Nature’s powerful displays can be a blessing or a curse for those starting out with Photographing Lightning from the missed chances and over exposed strikes. I try to compose my shot before hand, making sure that and street lights aren’t going to be a distraction or have something that’ll be moving and show tell tale signs of blur in my final image. My own Neighbourhood isn’t the most Photogenic place so I have scouted out a few locations with shelter close by that’ll offer a decent view of the storm.
Lightning over the Southport Broadwater
It’s become quite addictive for me to go out and Photograph Storms when they present themselves, although this last season wasn’t really that crash hot. One of the main priorities when out chasing storms is to try and stay safe and have somewhere that you can shelter if the storm gets too close. A favourite place for me to shoot is close to the Sundale Bridge
Passing Storm – Sundale Bridge
You really need a good sturdy tripod to help keep your camera stable in the wind, something to help keep your camera dry – I’ve used plastic bags, rain coat sleeves and now have an Optech Rain-Sleeve which you can pick up pretty cheap. A camera remote comes in handy to and like most things these days, you’ll find some cheap alternatives to the camera brands on Ebay for a fraction of the price. My current remote has a range of 200metres which lets me place my camera further out then I’d like to be standing.
Blanket
Depending on how close the Lightning Strikes are, the time of the day or if you have bright lights to contend with will help determine your aperture and how long you can leave your shutter open. I’ll use the lowest ISO my camera allows(which on the 400d is 100) and depending on how far away the storm is, or how light it is will try and keep the shutter open for as long as possible. Blanket was taken around sunset with an Aperture of f/6.3 and shutter speed of 10 seconds. It wasn’t long before I could no longer hold my tripod steady and had to find shelter fast and led me to my most unflattering Lightning composition which yielded 3 decent exposures in two minutes at this stage the strikes were over head so I changed the aperture to f/9 to help save blowing out the exposures.
To compensate over-exposing City Lights and Lightning Strikes I started under-exposing by about 1 stop on the camera’s meter and letting the Lightning be the Fill light. Of course if you’re away from the bright City Lights you could get away with a Bulb Exposure waiting for the strike, I’ve found at Night, 30 seconds would be the longest I’ll leave the shutter open or the street/Building lights will be over exposed or the Boats move around too much in the Broadwater.
No strikes in this 30 second exposure left this a little under exposed compared to the same camera settings used on the image below with Lightning being the Fill light.
I’d start my aperture around f/5.6 with the approaching storm and when the strikes start getting close I’ll change to f/9 . Settings like Aperture and shutter speeds will vary according to light and proximity of the Lightning and finding a spot that you’d like to shoot Storms from and having a dry run to work out your camera settings can help prepare you for the following Storms. If you can, shoot before they become wrapped in rain, you’ll remain dry, your lens element will remain dry. Day time is a whole different ball game and so far I have only managed a few successful strikes. I did buy a Lightning Trigger for my camera but I think it has put a curse on my storm chasing – only once have I got to use it and then for only half an hour. Next day time storms I’ll be trying out my Graduated Neutral Density filters to help extend the shutter speed slightly.