Photographing Lightning

[The Moose]

I have recently set myself a challenge of taking my DSLR out once a week. The idea is to make a concerted effort to actually use the bloody thing as opposed to sticking with my the camera on my iPhone.

One of the things I would like to photograph is lightning. Good thing that I live somewhere with a lot of thunder storms!

I have been wondering about how best to do this. There are 3 methods that I can think of:

1. Have a remote that will continuously take loads of pictures and then delete the hundreds of 'standard' ones it'll take

2. Take uber long exposures (maybe even using the Lee Little/Big Stopper) and hope you get a lightning strike within that period

3. Video the scene (4K) and try to pull a still from the video

If it makes any difference my camera is a 5D mk 4. Lenses I have are 70-200 f2.8, 100-400 f4, 17-40 f4 and 24-105 f4. I also have a number of random Lee filters I have purchased for some reason!

Obviously there is also the issue of being outside in the likely rain while all this is happening - I wonder if the 70-200 lens will be the best lens as I can get back a little further?

Any advice would be great - feel free to gratuitously post any lightning photos you may have taken!

[Simpo Two]

Point the camera in the best direction, set the shutter to 'B', open it... and then if you get some lightning, close it. Essentially the lightning makes the exposure. Adjust as required. Wide angle increases your chance of getting something, I'd say 70mm is far too long.

[S. Gonzales Esq.]

Here's one done using that exact method. I was giving it ten second exposures to get some tone in the sky, and about every tenth image also caught some lightning. Unusually the lightning kept happening in roughly the same place on the horizon, so I was using the 100-400mm.

[The Moose]

S. Gonzales Esq. said:

Here's one done using that exact method. I was giving it ten second exposures to get some tone in the sky, and about every tenth image also caught some lightning. Unusually the lightning kept happening in roughly the same place on the horizon, so I was using the 100-400mm.

Awesome photo!!

Would one of those controllers that makes it do a 10 second exposure over and over again do the job?

[S. Gonzales Esq.]

I don't see why not - do some tests so you're getting a reasonable image from the long exposure, and just keep repeating it.

Its quite fun having absolutely no idea what you've got until you look through the captures afterwards.

[Tony1963]

It's simple.

I'd use your 17-40 if the lightning is nearby, set to 17mm.

Put it on a sturdy tripod and hold a large umbrella over if it is raining. Often in the U.K. the storm is visible before the rain arrives.

Use a remote shutter release with the camera set to B, manual focus on just short of infinity, with 100 ISO set. Aperture of around f/11 to give good sharpness and depth of field.

Lightning tends to strike at regular intervals, so if you want to, you can guesstimate the next strike, but I'd just open the shutter a few seconds after the last strike, close it just after the next.

Adjust as necessary.

[Tony1963]

One of mine

[The Moose]

Tony1963 said:

It's simple.

I'd use your 17-40 if the lightning is nearby, set to 17mm.

Put it on a sturdy tripod and hold a large umbrella over if it is raining. Often in the U.K. the storm is visible before the rain arrives.

Use a remote shutter release with the camera set to B, manual focus on just short of infinity, with 100 ISO set. Aperture of around f/11 to give good sharpness and depth of field.

Lightning tends to strike at regular intervals, so if you want to, you can guesstimate the next strike, but I'd just open the shutter a few seconds after the last strike, close it just after the next.

Adjust as necessary.

Nice shot!

Not sure I want to stand in a storm holding an umbrella...

[Tony1963]

Well, if the lightning is very close I wouldn't go outside anyway! Been involved in lightning strikes twice, don't want a third.

[The Moose]

Tony1963 said:

Well, if the lightning is very close I wouldn't go outside anyway! Been involved in lightning strikes twice, don't want a third.

You can’t just leave it at that!

[DIW35]

Unless you are in a really dark spot, super long exposures could result in a sky that is too bright due to street lighting and low clouds. Multiple exposures of 10 to 15 seconds should be ok, though most of the resulting exposures won’t have anything on them. This shouldn’t be a problem unless you are shooting film.

The other advantage is that after the first couple of shots you can check what you are getting in terms of brightness of sky and level of detail in any foreground framed in the shot and tweak your settings to get everything right.

[The Moose]

DIW35 said:

Unless you are in a really dark spot, super long exposures could result in a sky that is too bright due to street lighting and low clouds. Multiple exposures of 10 to 15 seconds should be ok, though most of the resulting exposures won’t have anything on them. This shouldn’t be a problem unless you are shooting film.

The other advantage is that after the first couple of shots you can check what you are getting in terms of brightness of sky and level of detail in any foreground framed in the shot and tweak your settings to get everything right.

It looks like we're going to get some weather over the next week - 10 days. I'm hoping we get some storms rolling in off the sea and I can get some shots from the beach. If I manage to get anything worth looking at, I'll post them here!