Lightning

[the_hefay]

I enjoy watching lightning, but we don't really get that many lightning storms here like some parts of the U.S. However, today I was able to get 21 photos of lightning bolts. Here's a few from the storm.

[the_hefay]

And here's three more.

[sury]

Hmm. Second time I lost a post.
I was awestruck with the photos Jeff. I donot recall seeing any lightening images recently, if ever.
Did you use a trigger or burst mode and hope that you get "lucky"? Manual focus I take it.

[the_hefay]

Thanks Sury. I have a wired remote and put the camera on continuous. And yes I am in full manual. This works great at night, because you just put in a 20 or 30 second shutter speed and you capture just about every strike because of the time capturing versus not capturing is high. However, in daylight situations it's a little different. I use something like f/8 to f/15 and iso 100 to bring down the shutter speed. This time I added an ND filter and so my shutter was 1/3. Even at this setting, the camera is capturing less than half the time. I took 827 photos in 840 seconds. If I captured lightning in 21 photos, then statistically I missed over 21 lightning strikes. Perhaps I could've extended the exposure a little longer, but as it was this made for underexposed images. Fortunately there was enough room to make appropriate adjustments in LR, but I don't know that I could've gone much further.

[sury]

Thanks Jeff for the explanation. That was almost 14 minutes of shooting. Hope you had a grip with two batteries.

I found a cheap intervelometer worked very well on a900. You can program it for how exposures, how long each exposure and how much interval between exposures. Put the camera in BULB mode and let it go. I think I paid about $30 for it. I found for another $10 I can buy a set of connectors for different cameras. So even if you change brand you are convered.
I am almost tempted to by a light trigger but have not pull the trigger yet.

[the_hefay]

I was using my intervelometer. I just was using it as an intervelometer. I mostly use the interval function for time lapse of clouds and stars.

[aster]

These are absolutely outstanding, Jeff! Well done!

These are some of the best lightning photos taken by a conventional-meaning not-so-professional-photographer that I have seen. The timing and the compositions dead on. Nice samples for the phenomenon.

Thanks for sharing,
Yildiz

[Birma]

Great explanation Jeff. Love the storm clouds with the lightning strikes beneath them.

[the_hefay]

Thanks Yildiz and Andy. Since I only get a real good opportunity like this about once a year, I don't have a lot of time for practice.

[Pitter]

Wow those are brilliant! And thanks for explaining how you did it.

[Almazar80]

Nicely done. I want to take pictures of lightning as well, especially after looking at pictures such as yours.

[Greg Beetham]

Very nice work capturing the lightning and the general scene and clouds, I think you did a great job there.
Greg

[the_hefay]

Thanks for the great comments. One other thing to remember about lightning during the day is the background. You'll notice in a couple of these shots that the bolt almost disappears into the brighter sky below the clouds, while the bolts passing through the gray rain streaks are easily seen all the way to the horizon.

[the_hefay]

Here's one from tonight. This particular storm had a lot of sheet lightning or hidden bolts that lit the clouds. This was a 15 sec. exposure so it's a good possibility that this single exposure captured multiple flashes. Since it was at night, I have nearly 100% of the lightning flashes and I also have nearly 100% of the 239 images with lightning in them. I think I'm going to compile it into a timelapse and see what it looks like.

[sury]

Superb. Enough said.

Sury