Getting lightning photos is often on many new photographers list of things to shoot but often many of them have little idea how to go about it. The reality is, if you have a suitable storm, it’s really quite easy.
Lightning over Clear Mountain
OBJECTIVE:
My original objective for this shot was to capture a decent lightning shot but not over a lake as I’ve done before.
OBSERVATIONS:
It was around dusk as the storm was approaching my chosen location, the top of a nearby mountain. Here in Australia, a large hill is considered a mountain for some reason. Probably some geological thinking behind it I guess.
The storm was coming in with a vengeance from the west and removed all the light. Some storms have a heap of rain ahead of them which ruins the shots but this one was putting on a good show first. Sometimes a storm will put on a better show after it passes by. If it doesn’t leave rain set in that is.
COMPOSITION:
Looking west, where the storm was coming from, I could see the twin peaks of Mt Samson being silhouetted with the flashes of lightning. I decided to make sure I had those in frame and hope I’d get some good strikes across the photo.
SETUP & SETTINGS:
36 secs (Bulb setting with a remote release) – f8.0 – ISO 100. 18mm focal length. No filters on the lens. Tripod. Manual focus set to infinity.
If you don’t have a remote release then simply use your timer function.
POST PROCESSING:
Very little processing was done to this photo at all. A slight sharpening, curves/levels adjustment, was about all.
END RESULT:
During the 36 seconds I had 4 individual lightning strikes. I didn’t get all those at once of course. The 4 strikes gave off enough light that I got the mountains silhouetted but also the farmland in the middle of the shot as well.
Thanks for coming.
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thanks for this explanation. I have one question: how did you make sure that your camera was protected from the elements?
I used a van! I backed my van up and opened the back up (door opens up forming a roof. However, I’ve done this without a van, I used a covered area in a park.
This is so good to know…we have storm season in Calgary in July and i always wondered how this was done! My question on this is being in the big city with alot of light pollution at night, how does one adjust/compensate for this….especially with city light and cloud cover which reflects even more light? I tried last year to get some shots off my balcony living downtown but they were too bright and I just couldn’t seem to compensate for all the city light. Do you just keep adjusting the f-stop until you get it right…which I tried to do but then the storm passed over and I missed it….
Light is light Lisa … if you have too much but still want a long shutter speed you have to find other ways to reduce it. F-stop is one way and I use that first but if you run out of f-stop then using neutral density filters will work also.