Lightning Crashes
Apr, 2015Views
567
Likes
Awards
Action Award
Creative Winter Award
Curator's Selection
Legendary Award
Member Selection Award
People's Choice in Lightning Photo Challenge
Cool Capture
Outstanding Creativity
Superb Composition
Absolute Masterpiece
Top Choice
Magnificent Capture
All Star
Genius
Top Ranks
Top 10 rankTop 10 rank week 1
Top 30 rankTop 30 rank week 1
Top 20 rank
Categories
Same photographer See allBehind The Lens
Discover more photos See all
Behind The Lens
Location
The photo was captured just south of my home town of Toowoomba, Australia.Time
shot taken sometime between 6.30pm and 7pmLighting
When taking photos of lightning not much lighting is required because the flash of lightning will compensate for any light.Equipment
This was shot using a Nikon D5200 an 18-55 f3.5 lens mounted on a Manfrotto Tripod using a remote trigger. settings used were 18mm, ISO 100,F4 and a 20 second exposure.Inspiration
I'm an amateur storm photographer and when i saw the lightning in the distance from this storm i quickly jumped online to track what direction it was traveling, after finding out that the storm would come close to the outskirts of town i loaded up the car with camera and tripod and headed out to try and capture some Lightning before it got too close and dangerous. This would have to be one of my favorite lightning captures so far.Editing
Just a little tweaking in Lightroom to enhance the bolt and crop some empty space on the left.In my camera bag
The first thing i always pack is a couple spare batteries(fully charged)for the camera, an infrared remote trigger, my 35mm 1.8 prime lens. I use to take my two kit lenses an 18-55 and a 55-300 but i have now upgraded to a Tamron 18-270 lens and hardly ever use the kit lens anymore.Feedback
My advice to anyone wanting to capture lightning is to get a good sturdy tripod and a remote shutter release because you will be taking long exposures and you don't want any camera shake during the exposure. Set your lens to manual focus and then focus to infinity. Take a test shot in auto mode and make sure that your picture looks sharp on the rear LCD. Remember, digital cameras cannot acquire correct focus in dark environments, so it is best to focus manually. Set your camera ISO to its lowest value usually around 100 Set your camera to full manual mode. In manual mode, you control both the aperture and the shutter speed. I would not trust the camera’s metering system, simply because periodic lightning strikes will brighten up the area and your camera might give an incorrect exposure. Start at the shutter speed of 3-5 seconds and f/8 and see how the image comes out. If you are in a dark area, you might want to decrease the shutter speed all the way to 15-30 seconds, while in areas with plenty of light, you will have to stop down the lens to f/16 or more to allow longer exposures without overexposing the entire scene. I like to use a remote shutter release, I'll set the camera up as described, with the shutter speed at 20 seconds I'll then fire away on the remote button, once that 20 seconds is up and without pause I'll hit the button again and keep doing it until i know that i have captured a bolt from beginning to end. Sometimes i can take a couple hundred photos in a short session and only come away with 5 keepers.
