Photographing lightning. f-stop? (etc)

<p>Im sure this topic has come up from time to time, and although I did search, I have not found what I was looking for on the forum. Im going on my yearly trip to Florida in a little under a week and have tried many times to get some lightning shots, but failed every time. I need some actual numbers to work with so that I can hopefully get a shot or two this year.<br>

My equipment: Minolta XD manual SLR - Manfrotto Tripod - Cullmann Magnesit 35 ballhead - various SLR lenses from Tamron (17mm SP wide angle, SP, LDIF zooms, etc). Film - Fuji, ISO 50, 100 and 400. (and even a shutter release trigger)<br>

So, what I need to know is what f-stop to set my lens on, and how long I should hold the shutter open. Some shots will be out over the water, so the light will be less, but some shots will be aimed from the balcony over the city, so it will be brighter. Also, what ISO? I figure something like 50 or 100.</p>

<p>Any help would be greatly appreciated!</p>

<p>You want the shutter open for the longest time you can manage, and you also want (for aesthetic reasons imho) to have twilight rather than bright daylight or absolute darkness. The rationale being that twilight allows long exposures, but also enables foreround and sky/cloud detail to record. Of course doing it in darkness enables REALLY long exposures but presents other problems such as figuring out where the camera is actually pointing and whether its in focus (not easy on some zoom lenses which focus beyond infinity depending on the focal length).</p>

<p>Low ISO, polarizer filter, and an aperture that allows something between 2 and 10 seconds (or longer - I can get 30 secs in ideal conditions).</p>

<p>You are basically setting your camera to allow a correctly exposed long exposure, into which mother nature will whack a lightning bolt. The brightness of it is generally of such magnitude that it will give a good rendition even on small apertures.</p>

<p>Its all a bit expoerimental but with the previous to guide you you're on the right track.</p>

<p> This site has detailed exposure information:</p>

<p>http://www.weatherscapes.com/techniques.php?cat=lightning&page=lightning</p>

<p> </p>

<p>I shot this one about a year ago. I used a Canon XTi, iso 400, Sigma 30mm set to f8, 30 seconds, manual focus at infinity, centerweighted average metering and used the 10 second timer. I shot about 10 frames and got this one about #7. <br>

I got lucky by the storm being about 25 miles from me and no other low clouds in the way.<br>

Good luck.</p>

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<p>Thanks for all the tips! I can tell you that I was going by a book printed by Kodak that instructed me to set my camera at f11 and use a low ISO film. I shot ISO 100 with my manual XD with the 17mm lens set at infinity. Another thing the book said to do was leave the shutter open for 5 minutes, which I did. The conditions were complete darkness, but 5 minutes seemed odd. I kept it open until I saw a flash of lightning, which ranged anywhere from a couple minutes to right at five minutes. I KNOW I got some lightning in the frame, but I guess the f-stop was preventing me from capturing the bolts? I mean, on the slides, I didnt even have the slightest hint of anything, other than landscape.</p>

<p>Vary aperture (and ISO) to correctly expose the lightning. F6.7 at ASA 100 is a good start. If the lightning is far away, or skies are hazy, open up to f4 and beyond. If the action is closer, stop down. </p>

<p>Vary shutter speed to achieve proper exposure of everything else in the scene. Clouds, foreground, background, cities, oceans, whatever. If it's bright enough for the camera's meter to work, you can put the camera in aperture priority and let it manage the exposure.</p>

<p>Shooting at twilight, your shutter speeds may be fractions of a second. Just machine gun away and you'll eventually catch something!</p>

<p>In general, keep the shutter open until the scene is fully exposed. If you shut it when you see lightning, you may be left with an ugly, underexposed image.</p>

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<p>I kept it open until I saw a flash of lightning, which ranged anywhere from a couple minutes to right at five minutes. I KNOW I got some lightning in the frame, but I guess the f-stop was preventing me from capturing the bolts? I mean, on the slides, I didnt even have the slightest hint of anything, other than landscape.</p>

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<p>think your problem was distance. Based on the link liews G provided you probably should have used faster film. However that would have limited how long you could leave the whutter open. If the lightning was less than 1km away you would have seen the bolt in ythe slide. You could have opened the aperture instead of using faster film but again that would limited how long you could leave the shutter open. Basically it wasn't dark enough for you to leave the shutter open long enough at the needed iso aperture settings you needed to get the bolts to register on the film.</p>

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<p>but 5 minutes seemed odd</p>

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<p>There is nothing wrong with a 5minute exposure. If your objective was star trails at night an exposure of at least an hour is not unusual for film. Ihave in fact have left the shutter open on my film camera for several hours to get star trails.</p>

<p>I've had my best luck with ISO of 400, aperture at 3.5-5.0 with 30 to 45 sec shutter holds. Then maybe at aperture of f/11 for 30-45 sec. then maybe at aperture f/22 for 30-45 sec...Then follow the same sequence of aperture settings but increase or decrease the shutter holds.</p>

<p>Of course it all depends on the storm, how close you are, background lighting etc., etc.,</p>

<p>I do a lot of bracketing with either the aperture or shutter.</p>

<p>It sounds like you have the basic equipment . . . tripod, remote shutter release. Beyond that it just takes some expiermenting and practice!</p>

<p>I don't use a stopwatch for the shutter hold . . . I count the "one thousand one, one thousand two, etc., etc.,"</p>

<p>You will definately burn up some film! Make yourself some notes for future reference so that you can tell what exposure was what! Then you can adjust from there for future reference until you acquire a "natural" feel for "timed exposures."</p>

<p>I use around f8 and 30 seconds. Expose until I get a lightning flash and then cover the lens with a black baseball cap for the remaining seconds of exposure.<br>

Shoot, shoot, shoot.</p>

<p>I believe I made this <a href="http://harrington.zenfolio.com/nature-photos-for-sale/h1edb2a63#h1edb2a63">lightning photo</a> at F8, on Fuji slide film, probably 100 ISO.</p>

<p>I opened the shutter with a cable release, a few seconds (maybe 5) later the lightning flashed. I then closed the shutter.</p>

<p>Hey Matt,<br>

It's actually pretty simple with these settings. Daytime thunderstorms/lightning - Polarizer filter -Manual focus, infinity. Aperture priority f/16 - f/18 should get you a shutter speed of 1/8 -1/25<br>

Night lightning - No polarizer, Maunual focus, infinity. Manual mode , f/5.6 - f/4 - Shutter speed of 1 -2 sec.<br>

Use a remote or shutter release button, practice your reaction times, you'll get it. Also, iso always 100-200<br>

Unless you have a newer full frame DSLR, your long exsposures will be quite grainy. Check out some of my lightning on my website, not the best but decent. They are under landscape. <a href="http://www.j-jphotography.com">www.j-jphotography.com</a></p><div></div>