yeahhh for lightning!! I am kinda addicted... but I am going to try to snap some pics of the strikes.. I guess its a photogaphers addiction.. wouldn't have it any other way..
Hopefully I am not the only one who is addicted to storms and trying to capture the action LOL
Right now I am on Manual Mode, Infinity using my 70-300mm Lens.. ISO 200, F25...Have it on Bulb Mode and with the tripod and remote ready to strike the shot... I am not sure if these are the right settings or not, but I am gonna try...
I never took lightning pics before so this will be a fun night for me.. Hopefully I can get a few good strikes!
I'm a storm addict -- not photographing, though I'd love to, just a storm junky in general!
That's one of the things that sucks about moving to Virginia from Minnesota: Minnesota had AWESOME spring storms. Virginia's wimpy: hardly any thunderstorms. :(
aweee wow, but doesn't Virgina have some wicked ocean storms??
I would love to be a storm chaser, but I am kinda scared of tornadoes LOL
The closest I was to one was when I was living in a trailer court and it went through our corn field less than a 1/4 of the way... it seemed everything was in place in my yard and the neighbors yards but across the street and the rest of the court was damaged bad.. But I do love trying to capture the storm cells .. now having a DLSR I am really, really hoping to get some good storm pictures this summer..
I was watching the line of storms move through Davenport this afternoon. Family and friends in the QuadCities. It looked pretty intense.
Your interest in photographing storms is commendable. Be careful. I have a recent storm shot from last August/September. The camera settings are shown.
I've found it somewhat successful to use manual mode, as in bulb setting. I do think you want to gather light, so open up that aperture. Manual focus is best, with focus set to infinity, or focus on some lights in the medium distance.
Maybe I'm just slow on the draw, but any time I wait until I detect a lighting bolt and press the shutter release, I miss the lighting blast. Of course, in the midwest some lighting storms go on for many seconds.
My only other advice is to plan on elements of interest in the foreground to add perspective to the scene.
take your f stop down to 5.6 to f10 depending on the ambient light like that of city lights and how close the lightning is. @ f25 and 70mm, you wont see anything unless the lightning it like 1/2 or closer to you.
use a different lens, something like a wide zoom. for a few years I had a 28-200, then I got a 18-250, now I have the canon 18-135.
I try not to take an exposure greater than 20 seconds, so I generally end up with a few hundred blank shots with only capturing about 5 to 20 with lightning, and only a few keepers.
this is my lightning gallery
My Lightning
We live on a hill and can see for miles with a clear view of about 100 miles of mountain range. I love to watch the weather change roll towards us, we get some awesome views of storms. The photos above were taken from our back deck.
We live on a hill and can see for miles with a clear view of about 100 miles of mountain range. I love to watch the weather change roll towards us, we get some awesome views of storms. The photos above were taken from our back deck.
AWESOME!! Yes when the storm came through tonight and we were in the resturant eating.. I had my portable point and shoot but went to grab it and the battery was dead! It turned on by itself in my purse lmao! Those are wicket pictures thanks for sharing.. anyone else feel free to share pictures too, I LOVE seeing other pictures..
Now, the storm seemed to have passed, and I am disappointed.. we had full sky flashes when I had home but not really any boltz I can see from my home..
F5-6? Wow I was way off with that one! LOL I guess that is why I like to talk about things instead of read things, for me I learn faster that way than reading.. I like to shoot and go and talk LOL
Hahn that was an awesome picture yourself! That should have been turned in to Accuweather!
