Photographing lightning tips anyone?

[captain nodge]

Having quickly looking through the past posts on this thread i was unable
to find anything on the subject of photographing lightning esp the bolts,

just wondering as this is one of my favourite subjects to capture and have
only learned from trial and error, whether any of the more learned out there
have any tips on the subject.
I currently use a nikon d40x with the standard 18mm 55mm f/3.5-5.6
i normally if the lightning is sporadic use a tripod with the camera on a
bulb setting, manuel focus with an iso of 200, a lot is hit and miss obviously
but when i do get a result than theres plenty of wow factor.
Because of our lack of decent lightning storms there can be a long wait for
a decent capture, but one day i hope to go to the places where they are at there best, but thats just a dream at the mo so il have to put up with the sporadic ones we have in the uk
so if you are into this yourselves and have any advice or storys on the subject, then id love to know, also if you want to share any photos of
these grandest spectacales then id love to see em

cheers nodge

[captain nodge]

Hoped this worked!

one example of a bolt capture, yeah i have cleaned the lens and blown the sensor of dust so i think its clean for next time, i was lucky to get this one as it happened just in the frame

[Digifrog]

Obviously best to capture lightning when it's dark. If you are in the city with lights then your usual exposure would roughly be 30 seconds @ f/18. As you want to capture lightning then an exposure of more than 30 seconds will help more. I would use a filter (or 2), probably a 3 or 4 stop neutral density. A polarizing filter will give you 2 extra stops.

I would hazard a guess that an exposure of a minute would be long enough, so your camera setting would be B or [- -] and use a remote shutter release. One minute + 3 stop (0.9) Nd filter @ f/18. That's just a rough guide.

If you are shooting out in the country then you'd obviously need no filtering and a larger aperture (say f/4.5) for around 5 minutes at ISO 100. Taking your first image will help you gauge your exposure time more accurately.

Don't forget the brolly.

Rgds

Scott

[captain nodge]

Thanks for the info, i did wonder about filters, will have to look out for one,
Did recently purchase a remote (infra red) thinking how usefull it would be for
lightning shots, but for some reason when camera is set for remote, it wont
go on to the bulb setting, according to manuel it should, it cant be the remote at fault, gotta be camera.just looking at the manuel it says the d40x cant use the linear polarising filters only c-pl circular polarising filters, whatever that means,
Anyway heres waiting for the next storm

cheers scott

[Willo]

I have to admit to extraordinary good luck with this one. I was playing around with a new camera when the storm arrived. I watched the storm move up from the south west and decided to set the camera up in my south facing window. I set it on burst. I believe this was one of the first I took and for the next half an hour I must have taken hundreds of shots with this being the only success.

I think watching the storm is important, especially if it is moving up on you. Although you won't be able to predict where the lightning will strike it should give you a better idea at which parts of the sky to point the lense.

[captain nodge]

,Nice one,good clean capture that,was it set on auto, and what sort of camera is it?
the night i took the one thats on this thread i was just setting up to get ready for some shots, when there was the biggest bolt ive ever seen virtually overhead, and where it met the ground there was an allmighty flash like it had struck something, my eyes felt like id struck an arc without a welding shield, i missed that shot by about 5secs, mind you it would have probly wiped the picture out, gutted i was but hey hey i got a couple decent ones and its one of those great unknowns that makes it exiting,
Need couple spare charged batts though, dont half wipe em out pronto

[Willo]

Thank you for your comments not sure if I deserve them as all I did was point the camera in the right direction. The camera was a Panasonic TZ1. I expect it was set to auto as I had only just bought it and I didn't know what all the manual settings did back then.

[captain nodge]

It was great to see your example,main reason, you could say most lightning captures are hit or miss, my view, esp in this country, being far and few between, most photography gives you a chance to experiment with settings,again thats my way of thinking, im no pro by any means, I remember years ago seeing on tv some bloke well into lightning capture, this was before dslr,s,and he used to just clik away one after the other, and have loads of spare rolls, ready to pop in.

[Willo]

I agree with you on your point about experimenting. My current camera took me a long term to learn but by far the easiest way was to spend ages playing with it until I got a feel for it. Three years on and I feel it is time to make the next move up. Must start saving.

Recently I haven't had much opportunity to take pictures of lightning. I was in the Middle East last year and witnessed one of the biggest thunder storms I have seen. Sadly, by the time I had grabbed my camera and tripod then it had passed on. Would have loved to have caught a storm out in the desert.

[captain nodge]

Interesting lightning type captures found in the telegraph on a link in the astronomy thread on the wow post,
Wouldnt mind one of these on my mantlepiece