Discussion
My Dad woke up at about 2am, came into my room a bit bleary eyed and said "want to see something spooky?".
Lots of random bright flashes in the sky behind next doors house, but no noise, wait a bit, listen more closely to hear a distant rumble of thunder. Run to get camera, set up outside and wait.....
Not particularly brilliant shots but I've never shot lightning before so didn't really have a clue what to do
Lots of random bright flashes in the sky behind next doors house, but no noise, wait a bit, listen more closely to hear a distant rumble of thunder. Run to get camera, set up outside and wait.....
Not particularly brilliant shots but I've never shot lightning before so didn't really have a clue what to do
And i thought we were going to see some pics of you neighbour sleepwalking in the nude
Not bad for 2am bleary eyed, handheld shots mate
I admire your enthusiasm for making such an effort as well. well done. Not sure i would be sprinting outside at 2am!. My neighbour might get some truely horrific pics!
I must admit i have no idea what technique to use for lightning shots either. Anyone got an explanation?
Not bad for 2am bleary eyed, handheld shots mate
I admire your enthusiasm for making such an effort as well. well done. Not sure i would be sprinting outside at 2am!. My neighbour might get some truely horrific pics!
I must admit i have no idea what technique to use for lightning shots either. Anyone got an explanation?
bilko2 said:
I must admit i have no idea what technique to use for lightning shots either. Anyone got an explanation?
The hard bit is anticipating the time and direction of the flash. Best done with tripod. If it's a dark night, set camera to 'B' if you have it, and hold shutter open until you get a flash, or several. Where there is ambient light, eg streetlights, this will give you too much orange glow so keep the shutter open for less time and just take lots of pix with no lightning until you get one.
It's a bit like fireworks, but harder
I was a little irritated because for some reason my camera wouldn't go into 'bulb' setting on shutter priority.
I left it on the tripod, and in the 'middle' of a period where there was no lightning, fired off a 30sec shot and hoped we had decent bolts near the end of the 30sec period.
I played with different shutter speeds but you can't anticipate when you're going to get a good bolt.
I think it was luck more than anything.
I left it on the tripod, and in the 'middle' of a period where there was no lightning, fired off a 30sec shot and hoped we had decent bolts near the end of the 30sec period.
I played with different shutter speeds but you can't anticipate when you're going to get a good bolt.
I think it was luck more than anything.
mrs fish said:I'm down in Surrey, we only had really faint rumbles, but the flashing was there.
We were woken up at about 2-3am too by the thunderstorm, it was immense not seen one like it for a long time... it was also absolutely lashing it down with rain too, so no going outside for us
My sister's in Cambridge and I think it was right over head. Her dog was petrified, ate a wicker basket and dug up the lino in the bathroom.
Biggest ingredient to getting a good lightning shot if your not out storm chasing is surely luck: I managed to get this during a particularly heavy storm last year, pure luck that I happened to have the shutter open when this struck, seemed to hit the building accross the road so no more than 15m away. Christ was it loud!! I felt very strange for a good couple of hours afterwards....
(hair standing on end, tingling, hot flushes)
(hair standing on end, tingling, hot flushes) 
that it's not a good idea to be outside waiting for lightning to strike with a metal tripod.....GrahamOne I got last night on the edge of Dartmoor...
and a crop of the lightning, you can just make out some trails, almost!
30sec, F5.6, 1600ISO, which is why it's a little noisy
It was too far away for me to get anything much better, and it was cloudy where the flashes were coming from so you couldn't see them too clearly. I've also discovered that it's very hard to focus in near pitch dark with only the odd flash coming from a cloud miles away!
and a crop of the lightning, you can just make out some trails, almost!
30sec, F5.6, 1600ISO, which is why it's a little noisy
It was too far away for me to get anything much better, and it was cloudy where the flashes were coming from so you couldn't see them too clearly. I've also discovered that it's very hard to focus in near pitch dark with only the odd flash coming from a cloud miles away!
trackdemon said:
Biggest ingredient to getting a good lightning shot if your not out storm chasing is surely luck: I managed to get this during a particularly heavy storm last year, pure luck that I happened to have the shutter open when this struck, seemed to hit the building accross the road so no more than 15m away. Christ was it loud!! I felt very strange for a good couple of hours afterwards....
damn - you're a lucky man to have captured that. congrats!
Gassing Station | Photography & Video | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff