Arizona Monsoons - Questions About Taking Photos of Lightening!

TERI, I'm no help at all but I'm parked here to see what answers you get. 

Thanks Marchel....you should be getting some lightening down your way too. ;-)

TERI, I hope it doesn't come in the form of a hurricane.

Teri you could Video the storm but I am not an expert on FLIP, still worth a shot, I do know even old cameras could record pretty good storms.

Teri, try a manual setting and leaving the shutter open for about 5-6 seconds.

Marchel, that's right! I hope not too....maybe Gustav will fizzle out before it reaches land. ;-)

Justin, I will video the next time....trust me. The majority of the storm has passed, but I still hear the wind and the rain. ;-)

Lisa, so would I leave it open like I did for the fireworks' displays I did? I have it on automatic, and I have a fancy one, so I need step by step. ;-)  Guess I need lessons. ;-)

Teri I would put it on a tripod and leave the shutter open for a few seconds, you will be surprised what will come through!

If you have a fancy camera you need to set it to manual then choose how long you want the shutter open.

Teri I am going to look forward to seeing these shots of the sky. I already seen some awesome photography from you and would expect nothing less:)

Terri - the shutter speed and a tripod are the key - when you leave the shutter open for a longer period of time you pull in the light - most cameras even small point and shoot will allow you to increase and decrease the shutter speed.

Hi Teri, the Monsoons are grand, aren't they? A tripod and longer shutter speeds are definitely key to success in any night photograpy. Try bracketing the shots (taking several at different settings). You will have a better chance of catching that elusive great lightning shot you're looking for.

Teri,

depending on the camera you have the easiest way I have captured lightening shots is with a photographic lightening trigger device, attached to your hot shoe Mount. Once lightening or fireworks pace the plane of the light sensitive sensor the camera will fire an exposure. I never had much luck trying to gauge the strikes until I bought this sensor for my Canon EOS 5D.

Hi Teri, sorry I didn't back to your question sooner. However, you have some good advice already posted here.

Considerations are essentially the same as shooting fireworks (see below).

http://activerain.com/blogsview/578496/Photographing-Fireworks-Happy-4th

Lock the camera down, set exposure to several seconds and you are off and running. :)

Good luck. -B

Jeannette, I have to get a tripod....thanks. ;-) I do have a fancy camera, so I'd better figure this stuff out, huh?

Bill, well, we had thunder and lightening again tonight.....but I did a video which I'll check to see how it turned out. ;-)

Thesa, I think I did that when I captured some fireworks' photos on the 4th.....didn't turn out too bad either, I might say.;-)

Beth, LOVE the monsoons, although we have had some big ones lately.....I'm out to buy a tripod. I think Cheryl told me about one to get. Thanks so much.

Bryant, this sounds good....mine is a Nikon D70S....I'll definitely check into this gizmo....;-)

Bryce, that's okay....I understand. Yes, I've gotten quite a bit of good information, and thank you for verifying that it was essentially the same as shooting fireworks. Thank you so much,

and thank you to all.....great tips.

Darn~ how did I miss this post.  Thanks Bruce for the fireworks tips, now I'll be ready for next year!

Hi Teri, 

In the past (1984) I was able to get some lightening photos with the Bulb setting on my camera.  (35mm SLR)  I don't know what cameras have that type of setting.  That seemed to be the only way I could get a shot.

Lisa, I did receive lots of great suggestions. Bryce and Bryant seem to know about photography. ;-)

Doreen, I was able to capture a shot with my Flip, which I will share....but need to set my camera(s) in the fireworks' mode to capture lightening - and I need a tripod for the camera.....;-)

Lightning shots are more about patience than anything. You have a DSLR so you have a perfectly adequate tool to do it. You put that thing on a tripod, point it to where the lightning is going off and then set it to full manual and set the shutter speed for 15 seconds (or whatever time you find convenient). Aperture almost won't matter because you aren't really trying to get proper exposure for the full picture, only the lightning, and I would set the ISO as low as possible to avoid noise. Then you just keep continually shooting until you get some lightning pics. This only works at night when the sky is dark but you can usually get 1 good shot for every 10-12 pics you take but of course that depends on the severity of the storm.

This obviously requires a dry place to shoot from since the camera will be stationary on a tripod for quite a bit.

I've gotten a bunch of good shots this way:

Eric, these are wonderful....I LOVE them. We have such great storms here during the monsoon...I've ordered my tripod, and then will wait for our next storm. Thank you so much for sharing this great information. ;-)

WOW, Eric, those are some awesome pictures and I am going to have to try this next time we have a storm. I want pictures like that! Teri, thanks for asking the question and now we can't wait to see your photos!

Todd, aren't they wonderful? I've ordered the tripod....we'll see if I can find some good lightening bolts. ;-)

Had a monsoon blow through tonight (just poured rain for about 15 minutes or so) and I got a couple more good ones tonight:

II have had some problems like the 1st one where it just comes out wayyyy too bright so I started closing the aperture down. The 1st one is at my camera's widest of f/3.2, the 2nd at f/5.0 - both are 15 secs

FWIW

Wow, those are some great photos Eric!  I'll have to check out my camera to do what you did, I think......... Terri, I'm like you, need more specific directions!!   Gorgeous photos. The monsoon here is so dramatic, I hope we have some more rain!

1 - Dark sky, nighttime. This method will probably overxpose daytime or twilight skies. You would have to experiment a little on shutter speed for those conditions

2 - Tripod

3 - Dry spot to shoot from

4 - Manual controls:

     Lowest ISO possible - 50 on mine

     Shutter speed - I use 15 sec which is my camera's max ; some cameras go 30 secs or longer, you may need to experiment on what sort of limits you have at various shutter speeds. At some point an open shutter will make the whole picture overexpose

     Aperture  - f/4.0 to f/5.0

5 - Shoot away - your camera will hold the shutter open for 15 secs and then take a few secs processing that photo (longer shutter times equal longer processing time for most cameras). Once it's done, just shoot the next one. You will take a bunch of pictures of nothing (and miss some good ones when the lightning strikes while the camera is processing the last picture) but eventually you'll get some good ones.

Like I said, it's more about patience than anything. I spent about a 20-30 minutes last night and came away with 8-10 decent shots.

Eric, beautiful photos, AND love your step by step directions. Thanks so much. ;-)

Robyn, wasn't he great explaining it step by step? Great job. ;-)

Yep, he's my kind of guy!  Very detailed instuctions, but only on technical stuff ya know, not the really big stuff that we already instinctively know backwards and forwards.  Not the stuff like that of course. LOL!

Robyn, but I'm starting to get some of this good stuff....can't wait to learn more...;-)

I hear ya, I never thought I could put my website together but I did it.  I think my brain is only capable of one technical issue at a time. The camera is next, but I tell ya, I'm ready to hire a professional photographer for my photos, just can't find one!!  Good luck, keep working at it! 

Lightening photos are the best!  Why don't you post a couple of pics that you really like?

Robyn, I posted a lightening shot on another post - actually taken with Flip Video, and then captured from a still.....turned out pretty well. I share photos all of the time in my blog posts, especially on my Day Trips from Mesa, Arizona series. I'll be going to the Painted Desert - probably tomorrow - and shooting photos, and will then share. ;-)

The painted desert this time of year should be beautiful.  We had all of that cloud cover today and the sun just peeking through, it was nice.  If it rains tomorrow, wow.  That's where purple mountains majesty comes from, the mountains are amazing. Please post some pics when you can.

Robyn, I definitely will share. ;-)