How to Safely Photograph Lightning or a monsoon with your DSLR Camera
Prep:
Scout out an area before your shoot
that has an unobstructed view of the NW, (most storms come from NW). Watch the weather radar reports, &
whenever an storm is heading in your direction, get to your spot & get setup BEFORE it arrives.
A sturdy tripod is a Must (Due to High Winds), Lens choice will depend upon how cropped you want the lightning bolt
to be. A telephoto will record a large bolt, but sky coverage will be more limited than with a or wide-angle (So you may Miss a lot of the action!)
Settings:
Set your lens to Manual Focus and Infinity to avoid Auto focus issues and blurry photos!
Keep your camera at ISO
100 & f5.6 (this will produce sharp images.) If in a Very bright area then you can go up to F16. Set your Shutter to “Bulb”, use a shutter release & lock the shutter
open. (Usually 30 Seconds in a dark place is a good & wont produce too much noise or hot spots)
If in a Dark area, the shutter can stay open & the only
exposure will be from lightning. Once a bolt will flashes, close the shutter. (Repeat)
If Strikes are happening rapidly leave the shutter open for
multiple strikes in the same frame!
Start to Count seconds between lightning strikes. To Know Exposure length.
Example: If lightning strikes every 25 seconds use a 30 second exposure.
After counting for 2 bolts press the shutter 5-10 seconds after
the last bolt to give your 30 seconds a better chance of catching the bolt.
This requires Luck, timing & Patience, every 10th frame you MAY catch an Bolt.
Quick Recap:
- Shoot with a sturdy tripod & remote
- Find a location with interesting foreground
- Use a wide angle lens to capture more of the storm
- Determine the movement of the storm so you know where to point
your camera - Always shoot at ISO 100 for the least amount of noise. Use F5.6 – F8
- Shoot in Manual Mode so you can control the shutter & aperture
- Pre-focus your camera before the shoot (Infinity) using Manual focus. Auto focus will NOT work!
- Use Auto White Balance
- Take a few practice shots till your photo looks good w/o the
lightning. - If you are shooting a very black scene, use
“Bulb” mode (Longer than 30 sec. may produce noise) - Keep shooting – you can always erase the Blank photos later!
- Count seconds between lightning strikes. To Know Exposure length.
Equipment:
- Sturdy Tripod
- Cable/Shutter Release
- Cardboard Cover to cover your lens in bright locations
- Extra Charged Batteries
- Extra CF Cards
- Camera Cover
- Flashlight
- Water/Snacks
- Safe Place to take cover
- Chair
- NOTE: If you have 2
cameras, you can double your chances.
SAFETY FIRST – BE SAFE ALWAYS!
Join us to learn more about Photographing the Monsoons in Arizona here: http://www.PhotoAdvClub.com
Just a couple additional thoughts:
While f/5.6 is an excellent rule of thumb for the sharpest pictures, it actually varies by lens, especially with prosumer lenes (canon ef-s, tamron, sigma, etc.) If the lowest f-stop number on your lens is 5.6 it will not be the sharpest setting. In general the sharpest will be 2 stops from the lowest number, so for a f/5.6 lens it would be f/11.
As was mentioned, having a higher f-stop means a longer exposure and more potential for noise, so you will have to be on the lookout for that. Some camera’s have long exposure noise reduction settings you can turn on, so check out your manual to see if yours have it. Also, you can check out products like noiseninja to remove the noise in post processing. Photoshop has filters built in to do the trick, and so does GiMP if you need to go the free route. NDNoise is a free standalone program that is supposed to be fairly good as well but I haven’t used it.
On the plus side, the bigger f-stop number you use, the longer your exposure is, so the more chance you have at getting the lightning. Personally I aim for 4 to 8 minutes long. Remember that the difference in exposure between 4 and 8 minutes is only 1 stop, so you have to take that into account (as in, don’t do 5 minutes instead of 4 and expect a big difference). Doing it this way takes way more work and patience though. Sitting for 8 minutes for a picture that may or may not turn out at all isn’t for everyone. (I did a night shoot the other day that only had one usable picture after 1 1/2 hours of shooting). It also requires patient friends if you are with people 😀 The “quality” of the light you record can be very different though, and lead to things you didn’t expect. A fun project can be to get 3 or 4 lightning strikes with a long enough exposure that it looks like they are happening in broad daylight.
Here are a couple examples (of long exposures, not good photography)
http://jokerz17.deviantart.com/gallery/#/d2u6o55 (almost an alien landscape)
http://jokerz17.deviantart.com/gallery/#/d2ugkwe (the huge light is a porch light about a mile away)
One good way to really help with getting great shots is to practice at home. Try the following steps to get to know how your camera works in low light.
Materials:
– A room you can make completely dark, or as close to it as you can get
– An small object to photograph (a cup works, or a vase with flowers if you want to be fancy)
– A small candle (tea light would work best)
– A larger object like a table to put the object and the candle on.
– Your camera setup with a tripod and a remote shutter release.
– A flashlight
– Time, this should take at least an hour and a half
1. Set up a scene where your camera is about 10 or 15 feet away from the cup. A good example for many houses would be to put the cup on a table and your tripod in the living room. Put the camera far enough away so that you can get the entire table in the frame, or as much as possible.
2. Position the cup in the front left corner of the table, and with all the lights on focus your camera on the cup.
3. Put the candle in the front right corner of the table, and light it.
4. Turn off all the lights and use your flashlight to find your way to your camera. Make sure it is as dark as possible in the room.
5. Set your exposure to “Bulb” and then take the following shots using the remote shutter release (note, some require you to hold the button down the whole time, so if you are going out to buy one make sure you get one that can lock):
Write down the order you do these down if you don’t have an easy way to look up the exif information later.
15 seconds at f/5.6, f/8, f/11, f/16, f/32
30 seconds at f/5.6, f/8, f/11, f/16, f/32
60 seconds at f/5.6, f/8, f/11, f/16, f/32
2 minutes at f/5.6, f/8, f/11, f/16, f/32
4 minutes at f/5.6, f/8, f/11, f/16, f/32
8 minutes at f/5.6, f/8, f/11, f/16, f/32
if you have time, give 16 minutes a try too! It might take that long to get anything at f/32
Blow out the candle, and go check out the pictures on your computer. This should give you a good feel for what f-stop your lens is sharpest at, and at what exposure length you start to have serious issues with noise.
One other thought. Practice focusing to infinite on some mountains or clouds during the day. It is possible (and common on lower end or old lenses) for the lens to be out of alignment and “focus” past the infinity setting. Make a note on the lens where the actual setting needs to be so it is easy to find on the big night.
Good luck!