Another Lightning Round

kdog · August 19, 2008

We had a nice little electrical storm on Saturday night. Here are some highlights.

#1

I got a couple of shots like this where a huge fat lightning bolt has a green glow around it. Not sure what that is. Plasma-fied air?
#2

#3

#4

#5

#6

#7

Thanks for looking.

dlplumer · August 19, 2008

These are excellent.

What's your technique for capturing these, if you wouldn't mine sharing?

kdog · August 19, 2008

Thanks, Dan. It's actually very easy to shoot lightning. You need to switch to manual focus and pre-focus to close-to-infinity. Use an average setting like ISO400, F5, and bulb-setting for length. Just open the shutter with your remote, wait for a lightning bolt and release. If no lightning has struck for a period of time, say 15 seconds, release the shutter again and start a new frame. The reason for that is so that you don't overexpose any ambient light sources and blow out your scene. The exact ISO and aperture depend on the lightning. So review a few test shots until you get things dialed in.

Try it some time. It can be frustrating, but it's really a rush when you get one.

dlplumer · August 19, 2008

kdog wrote:

Thanks, Dan. It's actually very easy to shoot lightning. You need to switch to manual focus and pre-focus to close-to-infinity. Use an average setting like ISO400, F5, and bulb-setting for length. Just open the shutter with your remote, wait for a lightning bolt and release. If no lightning has struck for a period of time, say 15 seconds, release the shutter again and start a new frame. The reason for that is so that you don't overexpose any ambient light sources and blow out your scene. The exact ISO and aperture depend on the lightning. So review a few test shots until you get things dialed in.

Try it some time. It can be frustrating, but it's really a rush when you get one.

Thanks I will. Tucson is the lightening capital of the world