Shooting thunderstorms/lightning

Greenbay · Mar 13, 2015

Hi,

I am looking to shoot some pictures of thunderstorm as spring is quickly approaching. I currently own a Sony a6000 a long with a Ronikon 12mm lens f2.0, 16-50 kit lens, and a 55-200mm emount lens. I also have a wireless remote and a tripod. I've done some research and realize that I will probably need a cable remote, lens bag if it's raining and I will have to shoot at fast f stops. If anyone can recommend a good lens/gear or your settings or techniques it is greatly appreciated!

drh681 · Mar 13, 2015

Lightning Trigger

or one that does the same thing.

Greenbay said:
Hi,

I am looking to shoot some pictures of thunderstorm as spring is quickly approaching. I currently own a Sony a6000 a long with a Ronikon 12mm lens f2.0, 16-50 kit lens, and a 55-200mm emount lens. I also have a wireless remote and a tripod. I've done some research and realize that I will probably need a cable remote, lens bag if it's raining and I will have to shoot at fast f stops. If anyone can recommend a good lens/gear or your settings or techniques it is greatly appreciated!

svcook · Mar 14, 2015

I've always wanted to shoot lightening but I never have. I would you'd your 12mm and if I were committed I would lay out the cash for one of these.

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www.bhphotovideo.com

Greenbay · Mar 14, 2015

Awesome! Thanks to both of you! I never even knew something like that existed. I'm definitely going to look into those.

STexan · Mar 14, 2015

Shooting lighting can be done in 1 of 3 different scenarios

Night = relatively easy

Dusk = a little harder

Day time = hardest

The "lightning triggers" are very hit and miss. They will often trigger on cloud flashes that you barely see with the naked eye. And your camera might essentially be shooting constantly and capturing mostly nothing and you'll have to cull a few hundred images.

For daytime, you need to [ideally] be in a position where lightning is occurring less then about a mile away but hopefully more then a quarter mile away. Lightning that is far away will require a fairly sensitive ISO and often is not very desirable in the end. Lightning that is close you can user a slower ISO and longer exposure and the detail is much better and more impressive.

Be aware that often lightning will "multi-stroke", giving you time to maybe capture the second or third stroke for daytime shots. Shooting in day is much different then shooting night and is very difficult. With a trigger can help, but you will still need a storm with A LOT of nearby lightning to stand a decent chance of capturing a daylight strike.

Shooting near dusk kind of gives you the best compromise. You can do a longer exposure, and be able to see "ambient daylight" on the foreground, in addition to the lightning strike.

You have to tweak the exposure depending on the available light but you don't want to allow too much light in or a strike will be mostly all "blown out". The distance a strike is likely to occur will have a huge impact on the amount of exposure that will be "ideal" and allow you to retain a lot of detail. You can use an aperture or shutter priority, depending on the storm proximity and action. Experience is your best teacher.

Nighttime shoots are easy. I usually use ISO 200 and about F8 and do "bulb" exposure with a remote shutter release.

THE MOST IMPORTANT thing is setting to turn off autofocus, and be as careful as you can to prefocus on a distant light source then, be very careful not to change this inadvertently. You will not be able to really see the out-of-focus images until you get to the computer and that sucks.

Also, bring an umbrella to cover you camera. You will find you are often shooting into the wind. But, you can shoot the backside of storms in the right setups.

--
Robert K

Greenbay · Mar 15, 2015

Excellent, excellent information STexan! Your post was very helpful thank you so much! I hope to take these photos in the evening so your setting information is greatly appreciated!

STexan · Mar 15, 2015

I should preface my earlier information. I chased storms the last 6 seasons and became fairly complacent putting myself into somewhat dangerous situations. Many will say carrying an umbrella in the rain and a lightning storm is not wise, and they're probably right. I've got hundreds of lightning shots but this one is "the one that got away". This was a very active electrical storm with cloud to ground strikes and minimum rain shroud. There was a small tornado a few miles away but it was nearing dark and it was out of reach so I stopped to hopefully get a nearby lightning strike. I saw this windmill. As I was setting up the camera, there was a simultaneous loud "crack" and a "ping" Lightning struck the windmill about 100 feet away but I missed it. A little while later a caught this one nearly off-frame. I was really just hoping to get a strike in the back scene, with the windmill as a foreground subject, but never happened.

Was struck about 60 seconds earlier, while setting up :-(

Cityscapes with a nice overlook near dusk where can remain safely out of danger are great when the opportunity presents

Also, if you're into storm chasing and find yourself out on in tornado weather, realize that a rapid increase in isolated lightning activity often precedes a nearby developing tornado probably to the SW

--
Robert K

Greenbay · Mar 17, 2015

Awesome picture! And awesome information, thank you again! Your story really made me realize the dangers of capturing these shots as well!!

wildbird · Apr 1, 2015

There is an article in here about lightning shots.

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issuu.com

Day time shots - hard.

Night time, fairly easy, as pointed out.

Never used a lightning trigger, but imagine they are hard to 'calibrate', as you cannot tell when or how intense lightning will be. Night time, much easier to use an intervalometer. This way you get a good timelapse as well.

Greenbay · Apr 3, 2015

Thank you wildbird!!

KBKB · Apr 7, 2015

Here are two of my lightning photos:

I set up my NEX-7 on a tripod on the balcony of my house. I repeatedly took 30 second exposures for several hours with the lens pointed in the direction of the lightning.

One nice thing about this approach is that if more than one lightning strike occurs within the same 30 second window, you'll have captured all of them in one shot.

Greenbay · Apr 8, 2015

Awesome pictures and I also like your approach on shooting the storms, that would be a great way to capture lightning as well!

KBKB · Apr 8, 2015

Greenbay said:
Awesome pictures and I also like your approach on shooting the storms, that would be a great way to capture lightning as well!

I used the same approach during a night of observing the Perseids meteor shower in 2013. I was out for about four hours that night. I used two cameras, each of which was set for 30 second exposures. I saw some great meteors, but most were in a different direction from which I was pointing the camera lenses. Others occurred in the right part of the sky, but occurred when the camera's shutter was shut while performing long exposure NR.

I did manage to get one shot. It was the best that I photographed that night, but definitely not the best one that I saw. This stuff, like a lot of photography, requires a lot of patience and a little bit of luck.

Lanidrac · Jun 24, 2015

Greenbay said:
Hi,

I am looking to shoot some pictures of thunderstorm as spring is quickly approaching. I currently own a Sony a6000 a long with a Ronikon 12mm lens f2.0, 16-50 kit lens, and a 55-200mm emount lens. I also have a wireless remote and a tripod. I've done some research and realize that I will probably need a cable remote, lens bag if it's raining and I will have to shoot at fast f stops. If anyone can recommend a good lens/gear or your settings or techniques it is greatly appreciated!

Here's an oldy-moldy close strike from 2008 I think taken with a Canon Drebel. I've actually stopped being a fan of capturing this deadly stuff outside.

A really close lightning strike. Was loud.

Lanidrac.

--
Being a hoser is aboot being respectful, eh?

wildbird · Jun 25, 2015

KBKB said:
Others occurred in the right part of the sky, but occurred when the camera's shutter was shut while performing long exposure NR.

I always turn NR off. Wastes too much time. Just underexpose a bit (lightning is very bright usually, especially close) and you should be fine. A timer (intervalometer) is a much easier option than using your finger. Can be picked up quite cheap as well. Also can use as a normal remote.

Here are some of my old lightning shots.

Loading…

yourshot.nationalgeographic.com

Loading…

yourshot.nationalgeographic.com

wildbird · Jun 25, 2015

KBKB said:
Here are two of my lightning photos:I set up my NEX-7 on a tripod on the balcony of my house. I repeatedly took 30 second exposures for several hours with the lens pointed in the direction of the lightning.

One nice thing about this approach is that if more than one lightning strike occurs within the same 30 second window, you'll have captured all of them in one shot.

I prefer shorter timeframes. Shots usually clearer, less noisy, less blowout of any other lights etc. Depends on scene really. You can always easily stack the photos later to get multiple strikes. Also, if you use an intervalometer, you get a nice timelapse at the end usually.

Lanidrac · Jun 26, 2015

wildbird said:
KBKB said:

Here are two of my lightning photos:I set up my NEX-7 on a tripod on the balcony of my house. I repeatedly took 30 second exposures for several hours with the lens pointed in the direction of the lightning.

One nice thing about this approach is that if more than one lightning strike occurs within the same 30 second window, you'll have captured all of them in one shot.

Click to expand...

I prefer shorter timeframes. Shots usually clearer, less noisy, less blowout of any other lights etc. Depends on scene really. You can always easily stack the photos later to get multiple strikes.

That's bs photography. Stacking multiple lightning pics is kids stuff and not authentic or true. Capturing anything in photography should be about capturing the moment and not adding your photoshop skills to make it something else. Try shooting in manual, select the proper exposure time, f-stop, manual focus correctly, camera metering, and the ISO for that particular storm brightness. The other thing is to decide to shoot raw or jpg. ;-)

Lanidrac.

wildbird · Jun 27, 2015

Lanidrac said:
wildbird said:

Lanidrac said:

One nice thing about this approach is that if more than one lightning strike occurs within the same 30 second window, you'll have captured all of them in one shot.

Click to expand...

I prefer shorter timeframes. Shots usually clearer, less noisy, less blowout of any other lights etc. Depends on scene really. You can always easily stack the photos later to get multiple strikes.

Click to expand...

That's bs photography. Stacking multiple lightning pics is kids stuff and not authentic or true. Capturing anything in photography should be about capturing the moment and not adding your photoshop skills to make it something else. Try shooting in manual, select the proper exposure time, f-stop, manual focus correctly, camera metering, and the ISO for that particular storm brightness. The other thing is to decide to shoot raw or jpg. ;-)

"not authentic or true. Capturing anything in photography should be about capturing the moment and not adding your photoshop skills to make it something else." By definition, photography is not one moment, in the case of taking lightning pics at night, you are taking exposures of many seconds. Shooting RAW will also mean you will edit pics with some form of software. ANd who cares if you stack pics or not? Having one 30 second exposure or 2 15 second ones stacked, same result almost. Advantages to both shorter and longer exposures. Shorter exposures means there are more pics, if you hit your tripod you will likely screw the shot (Have seen people taking BULB shots of a few minutes to get multiple strikes of lightning, then bump tripod and blur everything). Shorter shots lock away the shots basically. Longer expsoures means you have less times where the camera isnt taking a picture. If it takes a second between shots, then taking 15 second shots will have about 4 seconds each minute, doubling exposure time halves that time of course. The rest, shooting manual etc has been covered. If a person wants there shot to show multiple strikes in their own pics, who are we to stop them. We can however show them how to do it.

Here's some 10 second exposures, stacked. 13 pics composite

Lanidrac · Jun 27, 2015

wildbird said:
Lanidrac said:

wildbird said:

wildbird said:

One nice thing about this approach is that if more than one lightning strike occurs within the same 30 second window, you'll have captured all of them in one shot.

Click to expand...

I prefer shorter timeframes. Shots usually clearer, less noisy, less blowout of any other lights etc. Depends on scene really. You can always easily stack the photos later to get multiple strikes.

Click to expand...

That's bs photography. Stacking multiple lightning pics is kids stuff and not authentic or true. Capturing anything in photography should be about capturing the moment and not adding your photoshop skills to make it something else. Try shooting in manual, select the proper exposure time, f-stop, manual focus correctly, camera metering, and the ISO for that particular storm brightness. The other thing is to decide to shoot raw or jpg. ;-)

Click to expand...

"not authentic or true. Capturing anything in photography should be about capturing the moment and not adding your photoshop skills to make it something else." By definition, photography is not one moment, in the case of taking lightning pics at night, you are taking exposures of many seconds. Shooting RAW will also mean you will edit pics with some form of software. ANd who cares if you stack pics or not? Having one 30 second exposure or 2 15 second ones stacked, same result almost. Advantages to both shorter and longer exposures. Shorter exposures means there are more pics, if you hit your tripod you will likely screw the shot (Have seen people taking BULB shots of a few minutes to get multiple strikes of lightning, then bump tripod and blur everything). Shorter shots lock away the shots basically. Longer expsoures means you have less times where the camera isnt taking a picture. If it takes a second between shots, then taking 15 second shots will have about 4 seconds each minute, doubling exposure time halves that time of course. The rest, shooting manual etc has been covered. If a person wants there shot to show multiple strikes in their own pics, who are we to stop them. We can however show them how to do it.

Here's some 10 second exposures, stacked. 13 pics composite

It's fake. It looks fake. A 'CGI'. It's not an honest photo. You can argue with me and I know Pshop, but faking a photo using various imaging gimmicks sucks if you are trying to show a real honest photo without major editing.

Lanidrac.

--
Being a hoser is aboot being respectful, eh?

wildbird · Jun 27, 2015

Lanidrac said:
It's fake. It looks fake. A 'CGI'. It's not an honest photo. You can argue with me and I know Pshop, but faking a photo using various imaging gimmicks sucks if you are trying to show a real honest photo without major editing.

Lanidrac.

Shooting thunderstorms/lightning

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