My first lightning shots

[Xia_Ke]

Had a nice little electrical storm roll through tonight so I tried my hand a photographing lightning. Wow, a lot harder than I thought it was going to be. Here's a few that I liked out of the shots I took.

[livin4lax09]

i really like that second to last one. We had a big storm here today but it was during dinner time, and I was pouring, so I was too lazy to try and cover the camera up. what were your settings for these shots?

[Xia_Ke]

Thanks Brent That 2nd to last was my fav too. I had my camera set to f/5.6, iso 800, and set exposure to Bulb. I set my camera to the remote and basically I would trigger the shutter with the remote until either a flash of lightning or until about 20 secs exposure time and would close the shutter. The trees in the foreground came out fairly blurry and had some over exposure here and there from the lightning, both of which I corrected a little in Lightroom. I think next time around I will try the same aperture and iso settings but, just do 15 second exposures instead of bulb.

[walterick]

Beautiful shots Aaron!

[starriderrick]

Outstanding captures Aaron. #4 is my fav.' Nice work.
Thanks for sharing how you pulled it off.

Rick

[Xia_Ke]

Thanks guys

...Thanks for sharing how you pulled it off.

I don't know if I would follow exactly what I did for mine. It took a bit of editing to get them to where they are at. When I get home to tonight, I will post an original for comparison.

[WesternGuy]

Great shots. Really like 3 and 4.

Cheers,

WesternGuy

[Xia_Ke]

Thanks WesternGuy

Here's the original of shot 4 just for comparison so you can see what the above mentioned settings yielded. As you can see it took a tad bit of editing to get the above results.

[opus]

... but it was during dinner time, and I was pouring, so ...

What exactly were you pouring? A bottomless pitcher of lemonade?


Xia_Ke, love the shots.

[Xia_Ke]

Thanks Opus

What exactly were you pouring? A bottomless pitcher of lemonade?

Pouring, someone say something about pouring??? ....

[livin4lax09]

What exactly were you pouring? A bottomless pitcher of lemonade?


Xia_Ke, love the shots.

haha, you got me. Darn that incoherent mind of mine.

and I can't have alcohol yet. legally. 1/2 more year...

[swmdrayfan]

Great shots Aaron. We haven't had any electrical storms of any consequence yet, so I'll have to try some at a later time.
John

[schrackman]

I meant to post a few days ago but got busy....I love these lighting shots! I sure wish I could take some like that.

last year we had a huge thunderstorm roll over banning...I mean it was huge. But I didn't feel like getting struck with a bolt of lighting that night so I stayed indoors and just listened to all the ka-booms overhead. lol

[Xia_Ke]

I don't blame you Ray. The only reason I was out taking these is 1) I was on my covered porch and 2) it was not raining. As fun as it was, it's not worth taking stupid chances with myself or my camera.