Lightning!

[mattb]

I always like to try and grab lightning shots when I can. I love the raw power and beauty of it as well as the challenge of catching it. My wife is also a lightning strike survivor so it has a special significance in our family.
Last night we had an amazing storm that lasted for hours. It was up the valley far enough I felt comfortable hiking to a hillside near town to catch a good view. I shot for a couple of hours of near constant lightning. I have more photos to sort through and process, but here are a couple I was happy with.

IMGP0025-Edit by MattB.net, on Flickr




Nature's fury
by
Matt Burt

[armando_m]

very nice

congratulations!

[DennisT]

Spectacular - what an experience - we simply do not have storms like that in our neck of the woods

[wfooshee]

Very nice. I just had some a couple of weeks ago and screwed up the focus just a bit. It's nice to get a chance to try for these, and it doesn't happen (safely) very often!

[mattb]

Thanks! It was a pretty magical night. A perfect storm if you will. ;)

I shot with five different lenses, trying things out and I see one of my lenses was also way out of focus so I'm glad I rotated through them a bit. I must have bumped that one out and couldn't tell in the darkness. The unsettled weather has continued but it was raining here last night unlike the previous night where my spot stayed dry. I'll stay ready and hopefully be able to grab some more before the season is done.

[Luke Skywalker]

Great photos! We are so small to the forces of nature

[f86sabjf]

nice shots !!

[Vatsi]

Nicely captured.

[Photo-John]

Glad to see you shared these here, Matt! I went out to shoot a sunset last night right as a big thunder storm rolled in. I tried to get some lightning photos but didn't have any luck. I wasn't really prepared. I had a polarizer but really needed some heavy-duty neutral density filters. The best exposure times I could get with the gear I had were 1.3 seconds and I missed every lightning strike. Sooooo - tell us about your gear and exposure times. What did you do to get these photos?

[mattb]

Thanks! I've had similar outings to yours where I get no bolts at all, and more often than not it's in the daylight. The short exposures just make the chances of catching something astronomically smaller. I have also tried with my 10 stop filter during daylight hours but didn't get any bolts even though I thought I saw some during an exposure. I wonder of my ND filter was too dark or something like that. I may try again if I get a good chance because it seems like they should show.

For these shots and all my successful lightning photos it's been dark out. That gives me the ability to do longer exposures like 20-30 seconds.
We recently had this great storm North of town but overhead it was clear so I felt safe enough to hike to a hilltop with a clear view of the storm. I tried a few different lenses and stayed out shooting for a couple of hours while the storm raged maybe 10 Miles away. That first shot was taken with my a 40mm pancake prime (Pentax DA 40mm f/2.8 Limited). It's a favorite lens for sharpness, being small and light, and it has a nice distance scale with an easy to operate focus ring.
I'd just point the camera toward where I last saw lightning, set focus at almost infinity, and start a 30 second exposure. I'd do a few for each composition and then change it up a little.
For the second shot I got out a telephoto zoom, the Pentax 60-250 f/4 and zoomed in to where the lightning had been pretty consistent and shot a few frames there. I got a few good bolt shots and liked this one the best.
The camera used was a Pentax K-5.

[Photo-John]

Yeah, one second exposures do not cut it. In general, the only filter I care about is the polarizer. But we do get good thunder storms here and last night I wished I had some ND filters. I missed a couple of striked by just a fraction of a second. Even a ten second exposure probably would have got the job done. I was a total loss, though. Here's a photo I took near the end of the storm. It would have been sweet if I caught a lightning strike with this scene but I'm happy enough with this photo as it is



This was taken with the Canon T4i / 650D and my 50mm f/1.4. The exposure was ISO 100, 1/15th second @ f/5.6. This was actually after I'd given up on the lightning, hence the faster exposure. Also, I was sitting in the car, with the passenger window down and the tripod and camera on the passenger seat - safe from lightning unless it came in through the window.

[mattb]

Yeah, I hear the car is one of the safest places to be for lightning. That's a nice shot too!
Tonight I was on my deck. Boom! Actually this was more of a crackle. It's a composite of two 8s exposures. I used my weather resistant 18-135 zoom because we were having torrential rain and wind too. Had to clone out some drops.

IMGP1378-Edit by MattB.net, on Flickr

[wfooshee]

I've only tried daytime lightning once, a total loss. I tried the "reflex" method: See something starting, mash the shutter. I did get a couple of bolts, but barely.

The night shots I've done are relatively easy. ISO 100, f:8, and pick a time to use for the shutter, keeping in mind that the noise filter is going to lock the camera for that same time after the shot. 10 seconds on, 10 seconds dead, for example. I got to where I could see something starting and trip a 2-second exposure and get good results, without a huge wait for the camera to come back to life afterwards. My own lightning shots here.

The one below is from several years ago, and was ISO 200, and I switched to 100 more recently based on the results with this one. Could have just as easily stayed at 200 and gone to f:11, I suppose....



It was fully dark for that one, all the light in the scene is from the lightning.

[mattb]

Nice! I turn off the dark frame subtraction noise reduction for my night shots so I don't have to wait. If I remember I'll grab a reference dark frame or if not just use LR's noise reduction later.

[Dylan8i]

I shot this one this week. Not a very interesting bolt, most of those were behind me, but i wanted the foreground to be the town of Mammoth Hot Springs, Yellowstone NP

[georgimz]

Nice job. I haven't managed yet to make a shoot of lightning and I don't like that fact.

[mattb]

Nice job. I haven't managed yet to make a shoot of lightning and I don't like that fact.

Your best chances are at night so you can make longer exposures than during the day. Of course you will need a tripod for that.

What has your approach been so far?

[joearndt59]

good one!!!!

[stoikos]

They are impressive! think i need to try to grab some lightning shots myself now!

[mattb]

Just got this one from the deck last night.
Pentax K-3, DA 15/4 Limited
IMGP5703-Edit by MattB.net, on Flickr

[drixy]

Nice job