Stormchaser
Copyright Bob Lionel 2012
Copyright Bob Lionel 2012
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Jul, 2014Views
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Behind The Lens
Location
This photo was taken near Princeton, Texas in a field during a thunderstorm.Time
I do some storm photography and was trying out a new lightning trigger. Unfortunately the trigger wasn't working so I decided to just do some longer exposures and see if I got lucky. The storm had shifted and most of the lightning was moving to the east away from me. On a whim, I decided to see if I could get a profile of the Jeep silhouetted by the lightning.Lighting
I was able to get the Jeep in a lightning shot but I wanted to see more of the Jeep. I set the exposure for a little longer and then used my phone's flash led in flashlight mode to paint the Jeep with light so that it showed up. It took a few tries but managed to get a good strike in the background. Unfortunately it was a bit brighter than the others but I liked the look of the shot.Equipment
This was taken with a Canon 5DMark III and I believe a 17-40F4L. The only lighting used was the LED flashlight on my phone.Inspiration
I love taking photos of lightning. I don't think there is anything that captures the raw power of nature quite like the energy of a thunderstorm.Editing
I edited the photo to balance the temperature of the photo between the LED light and the lightning. I also boosted the shadows a bit to bring the Jeep out more.In my camera bag
Shooting storms, I always have usually at least two bodies - at the time of this, I had a 7D and a 5D Mark III. A good tripod like 3Legged Things and most helpful is a lightning trigger. You can actually get better coverage and increase your odds of getting THE shot by using multiple cameras covering several directions and perhaps most importantly, a rain coat for the cameras. For glass, I like the Canon 17-40F4L or the 24-70F2.8 L.Feedback
Find a good storm, get to the side of it or the back of it (preferable) and then. Set up your camera(s) on tripod(s). It's easiest to capture lightning with a trigger, but you can also use about a 10 second exposure (adjust exposure using the aperture and ISO but try to keep it less than 800). Without a trigger, just keep hitting the shutter and see if you get a good capture. You can keep decreasing shutter speed and aperture for longer exposures that increase the odds of catching a strike, but be mindful that you don't increase it so much that a lightning strike completely overwhelms the sensor of your camera and "blows out" all the detail of the strike.
