Nature and Wildlife Photography Forum

Discuss all types of nature and wildlife photography, photo techniques, equipment, and share your nature and wildlife photos.
Featured Photo
Photo by BMOORE

by BMOORE
Featured Photo Archive >>
Results 1 to 21 of 21

Thread: Lightning!

  1. #1
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    Aug 2011
    Location
    Gunnison, Co, USA
    Posts
    898

    Lightning!

    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

  2. #2
    Senior Member armando_m's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2009
    Location
    Guadalajara Mexico
    Posts
    4,486

    Re: Lightning!

    very nice

    congratulations!

  3. #3
    Member
    Join Date
    Apr 2009
    Location
    Port Elizabeth, South Africa
    Posts
    311

    Re: Lightning!

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

  4. #4
    Woe is me! wfooshee's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2011
    Location
    Panama City, Florida
    Posts
    656

    Re: Lightning!

    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!

  5. #5
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    Aug 2011
    Location
    Gunnison, Co, USA
    Posts
    898

    Re: Lightning!

    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.

  6. #6
    Junior Member Luke Skywalker's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2013
    Posts
    28

    Re: Lightning!

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

  7. #7
    Member f86sabjf's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2012
    Location
    Deltona. Fla
    Posts
    322

    Re: Lightning!

    nice shots !!
    Nikon D5100
    18-55
    55-300
    <<BLACKRAPID>>>>Sport2

  8. #8
    Junior Member
    Join Date
    Jul 2013
    Posts
    3

    Re: Lightning!

    Nicely captured.

  9. #9
    Captain of the Ship Photo-John's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2001
    Location
    Salt Lake City, Utah, United States
    Posts
    15,422

    Re: Lightning!

    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?
    Photo-John

    Your reviews are the foundation of this site - Write A Review!

  10. #10
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    Aug 2011
    Location
    Gunnison, Co, USA
    Posts
    898

    Re: Lightning!

    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.

  11. #11
    Captain of the Ship Photo-John's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2001
    Location
    Salt Lake City, Utah, United States
    Posts
    15,422

    Re: Lightning!

    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

    Lightning!-_mg_4418_1200.jpg

    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.
    Photo-John

    Your reviews are the foundation of this site - Write A Review!

  12. #12
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    Aug 2011
    Location
    Gunnison, Co, USA
    Posts
    898

    Re: Lightning!

    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

  13. #13
    Woe is me! wfooshee's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2011
    Location
    Panama City, Florida
    Posts
    656

    Re: Lightning!

    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.
    Last edited by wfooshee; 07-30-2013 at 09:10 AM.

  14. #14
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    Aug 2011
    Location
    Gunnison, Co, USA
    Posts
    898

    Re: Lightning!

    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.

  15. #15
    Senior Member Dylan8i's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2006
    Location
    Yellowstone NP, USA
    Posts
    1,878

    Re: Lightning!

    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


    check out my photography website
    http://dylanschneider.zenfolio.com/



    Please feel free to edit or change any of my pictures to show me how to improve them.



    Nikon D200
    Nikon D7000 w/grip
    Nikkor AF-S 18-135
    Nikkor AF-S 60mm macro 2.8
    Nikon 70-200 2.8 vr
    Nikon tc-17eII
    Kenoko extension tube set
    SB-600

  16. #16
    Junior Member
    Join Date
    Jul 2013
    Posts
    20

    Re: Lightning!

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

  17. #17
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    Aug 2011
    Location
    Gunnison, Co, USA
    Posts
    898

    Re: Lightning!

    Quote Originally Posted by georgimz View Post
    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?

  18. #18
    Junior Member
    Join Date
    Jul 2014
    Posts
    11

    Re: Lightning!

    good one!!!!

  19. #19
    Junior Member
    Join Date
    Jul 2014
    Location
    NYC, USA
    Posts
    8

    Re: Lightning!

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

  20. #20
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    Aug 2011
    Location
    Gunnison, Co, USA
    Posts
    898

    Re: Lightning!

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

  21. #21
    Junior Member
    Join Date
    Aug 2014
    Posts
    2

    Re: Lightning!

    Nice job

Thread Information

Users Browsing this Thread

There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)

Tags for this Thread

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •