Thread: Lightning Shots

Originally Posted by dullbird

have you tried shutting the aperture right down and exposing for longer?

the smaller the hole the longer you need to allow enough light to come through...whether or not this would work i'm not sure...

Lightning bolts are like camera flash, a brief intense burst of light. You can control the lightning exposure with aperture, and the background exposure with shutter speed (though depending on the frequency of lightning strikes, longer shutter speeds can catch too much lightning).

The brightness of lightning strikes allow smaller apertures (larger f/ numbers) which gives greater DOF for your scene.


8 secs, f/9, 100 ISO (25 Nov 2005)


Too many strikes during 19 secs, f/4, 100 ISO (25 Nov 2005)


f/9, 16 secs, ISO 100 (4 Mar 2007)


f/9, 16 secs, ISO 100 (4 Mar 2007)

Originally Posted by Craig

DB

I'm not sure about how the pro's get the shots, but I find that if I dont have the ISO up that high I cant seem to get the shots, I've got the lens wide and the apature full open, that seemed the only otherway to get the individual bolts of lightning.
That said if anyone cans sugest better settings then I'm moe tha willing to try them out.
I also turn the NR in the camera off (both high ISO and long exposure) and then try to fix it up using GIMP.

Craig

A lot of those of us who are professional photographers and lightning buffs have a bit of kit that can best be called a lightning detector. Essentially it's a fast acting near Infra-red detector that triggers the shutter when a lightning bolt is first starting. When using a fast off the mark camera like the F5 (film) or D2x (Digital) with the lens set up manually to expose for the natural scene illumination you can obtain stunning results.

The detectors are fiendishly difficult to get working correctly though as they meter through the view finder. When I built mine it took months of work to eliminate false triggering from the mirror return.

Needless to say since I've built mine there's been 3 decent electrical storms in Perth and on each occasion I've either been overseas or interstate. However I'm hoping that this year will be my lucky year.

For the technically minded the detector uses a fast PID detector diode which must be sensitive at 940 nanometers. Rise time should be under 25 microseconds, this in turn triggers a resettable flip flop that drives a CMOS switch to close the electronic triggering circuit on the camera. At the same time a 555 based timer kicks in to reset the flip flop after a user defined time. All ouputs and inputs to have to be suitably buffered against spurious rises and spikes otherwise the unit will continue self triggering. The timer circuit should be variable with at least a 1-60 second calibrated range.

Back to the world of mortals .. set up your shot using manual focus and manual exposure to give a good exposure of the background (city lights whatever).. use a remote shutter release and start burning frames once the lighting starts kicking in.

NOTE: Photographing lightning is hazardous and extreme caution should be exercised. Lightning strikes can occur up to 20+ miles in front of the main activity (lighting). You should never attempt to photograph lightning from an out door location as you may well end up a bit more brown and crispy than you thought.

Ben,

They are great shots. I guess that you live somewhere near the location you have used several times.


Disco,

I take it that PID is ? something P... Infrared Detector?

I got the rest except the bit about the detector having to meter through the view finder. Are you doing this to limit the angle of view to that which the camera can see? I suspect that if that is the case then a metal tube pointing in the same direction as the camera and sprayed mat black with the detector inside it would achieve the same limiting of the field of view.

Disco,

I take it that PID is ? something P... Infrared Detector?

I got the rest except the bit about the detector having to meter through the view finder. Are you doing this to limit the angle of view to that which the camera can see? I suspect that if that is the case then a metal tube pointing in the same direction as the camera and sprayed mat black with the detector inside it would achieve the same limiting of the field of view.

My mistake, I wrote that on under an hours sleep in 48 hrs. It should have been IRD (Infra Red Detectior).

You can use a tube on top, but if you use multiple lenses of different focal lengths then you have to calibrate the tube by moving the detector up and down the tube. I tried it and it does work after a fashion. In the end I just increased the amplifier section gain and mounted it in a block of wood that clips over the view finder. That way I can use with with any lens in my arsenal from 6mm fisheye to 1200mm super tele.

ok so I had a go, unfortunatly not brilliant as I dont have a very wide lense so could only cpture a small amount from the back decking...also there is a lot of cluter around so hard to get a sort of nice set up shot with silohettes etc......still I'm pleased with my first go!

It's actually quite addictive and relaxing listening to the thunder while cracking shots off

I missed all the best stuff that was going off in about 3sec intervals with the lightning walking accross the sky horizontally looking for my bloody quick release plate so I could use the tripod

Well done Lou. Still never got round to this, usually to wet to get the camera out when we get lightening shows like that.