How To Photograph Lightning

How To Photograph Lightning

Where to start and how to improve your odds

Of all the questions I’m asked about photography, one of the most popular questions is, “How do I photograph lightning?” Considering that it's May, and going into the prime time of year for storms in the U.S., I thought this blog post would be timely. If you have an interest in lightning photography, I'm going to tell you what you need to know to get started.

Everybody hopes for a magical answer about how to shoot lightning. The fact is, while it’s not overly complicated, it’s not easy either. Many of us experienced lightning photographers can, and DO come home from a storm empty-handed. However, there are some things you can do to improve your odds if you hope to capture a bolt from the blue. I’m going to be as concise as possible, but there is just SO MUCH to talk about on this subject!
So grab your coffee and be prepared to sit for a minute!

The Equipment…

Over the years, I’ve developed a large arsenal of equipment I take with me when I’m photographing lightning. There are many optional pieces of equipment I use, but there is some equipment that you just HAVE TO have. I’ll give you a list, and then I’ll elaborate on those items a little bit.

 • Camera (duh!) Preferably a DSLR, but it can be done with a point-and-shoot camera, too!

• Shutter release cable (not available for point-and-shoot cameras)

• Tripod

• Working knowledge on how to use your camera

• A storm with some lightning in it

 That’s it! That’s all you really need to get started! Now let’s learn how to put this all together and start shooting…

 While it IS better to go outside to shoot lightning for a few different reasons, it is MUCH safer and much easier if you shoot from home until you get the hang of things. Safety is DEFINITELY of the utmost importance while photographing a storm. If you’re too busy having to focus on putting the gear together and remembering your settings and all that, you’re not focused enough on keeping yourself safe.

 Most successful lightning photos are shot on the back side of the storm just as it has passed your location. So you CAN set up in a window facing the storm as it approaches, but most of your good photos will be in the window on the opposite side of the house as you’re shooting the storm moving AWAY from you. Knowing that, you can figure out which areas of your home will work the best to set-up.

 Whether you’re shooting with a DSLR or a point-and-shoot camera, keeping the camera still enough is critical!!! Especially when shooting lightning at night. In the daytime, it’s not as critical, but still very helpful! There are two main ways we can keep the camera still. The first is by mounting the camera on a tripod. If you don’t already own a tripod, you should definitely invest in one if you plan to shoot lightning. You can get a half way decent one at most retailers starting at around $15. But buy the best one you can afford to buy. The other way we keep the camera still will vary depending on if you’re shooting with a DSLR or a point-and-shoot. 

 For DSLR users:

This is where your shutter release cable is going to be handy. If you don’t have one, you can purchase one online, or in virtually any camera store. Just beware that they are both brand and model specific. So when you go to purchase one, be sure to know what brand and model camera you have. Online, they start somewhere around $10 for a very basic one, and go up from there. But you don’t need a fancy one for what we’re doing here. A very basic one will do just fine! If that’s not an option at the moment, then read on, and just follow the same step as those people with point-and-shoot cameras.

 Point-and-shoot users:

Even with the camera on a tripod, the act of pushing the shutter button to take a photo will cause camera shake, which will cause blurry photos. So we want to be sure that when the camera takes the photo, we aren’t touching it. We’ll accomplish this by setting your camera’s timer. Most cameras have both a 2 second and a 10 second timer. It would be safer to use the 10 second timer, but the 2 second timer may work ok, too.

Just Say "No" To Auto!

For both kinds of cameras, you need to get out of the comfort zone of automatic settings where the camera chooses all your settings FOR you! When it comes to shooting lightning, the auto settings on your camera will be a sure cause of failure! We need to manually focus the camera, and manually adjust our settings.  On the DSLR’s this will be easy. On the point-and-shoot cameras, not so much. For those of you with a point-and-shoot, you’ll need to go into your menu, look for the focusing portion of the menu, and choose “manual focus”. Then you will need to figure out how to manually focus your camera. This will be in your owner’s manual. You will also need to know how to put your camera into the manual settings mode. This is USUALLY done with a knob on the top of the camera. Turn the knob until its set to “M”.  From there, you’ll need to know the process of changing your settings (shutter speed, aperture and ISO).  This information will also be in your owner’s manual if you don’t already know how to do it.

 What settings do I use???

Another common question I’m asked about shooting lightning is, “What settings should I use to photograph lightning?” The best answer I can usually give is, “It depends”.  And it’s true. It depends on a lot of variables. So I usually go through the following list of questions…

-Is it daytime or night time?

Obviously, if you’re shooting daytime lightning, you’ll need a faster shutter speed than you will at night.

 -Are you shooting in a bright environment like a city, or are you in the country away from city lights?

If you’re somewhere brighter, like the city, you’ll need a little bit faster shutter speed and/or a                 smaller aperture setting to let a little less light in. If you’re in the country with no/few lights, you’ll use a slower shutter speed to let a little more light in.

 -How close is the lightning?

Distant lightning isn’t as bright as lightning that’s nearby or overhead. For distant lightning, you’ll use a slower shutter speed to let more light into the camera. For close lightning, you’ll want to shoot with a faster shutter speed so that the brightness of the lightning doesn’t overexpose the photo.

What I’m going to do in the next section is give you some baseline settings you can start with. But again, you will need to tweak these settings based on your particular environment. They will also change throughout a storm based on where the storm is in relation to you. For example, if it’s daytime, and the storm is approaching off in the distance, you might still have some sunlight to work with, and will need a little faster shutter speed. But as the storm gets closer and the skies get darker and darker, you will need to decrease your shutter speed accordingly to let more light into the camera for the proper exposure. Again, assuming it’s daytime, as the storm moves away from you and out of your area, the skies will start to lighten up again, and you will need to increase your shutter speed.

 OK, OK! The Settings Already!

For both daytime and night time lightning, I set my ISO to 200. I shoot with a Canon 50D, and that is the lowest ISO I can manually set my camera to. The low ISO helps to reduce digital noise in the image.

 Daytime:

ISO: 200
Shutter speed: around 1/320 second
Aperture: f/5.6 or f/6
Lens focus: no zoom, and focused to infinity

***Note for those of you less experienced*** If you have a DSLR, you focus to infinity by having the switch on your lens switched to MF(Manual Focus), and then turning your focus ring all the way to the left as far as it goes, and then back to the right just a millimeter or two. Experiment with this outside during the day so you can see how this works. For point-and-shoot cameras, it’s much the same, but you won’t have a focusing ring to turn. So again, consult your owner’s manual on how to manually focus your camera. When you focus to infinity, the purpose is obviously to get everything in the distance as sharp and clear as possible.

 Night time:

ISO: 200
Shutter speed: 1/20 second
Aperture: f/5.6
Lens Focus: same as above…infinity.

 Where the settings meet luck…

Daytime lightning is extremely hard to get. Not just for beginners, but even for experienced people like myself. Without the help of a lightning trigger (which I will talk about in the future) the two methods of getting daytime lightning are…

A.      Trying to hit the shutter button or cable release button the instant you see lightning and hoping you were as fast as it was.

B.      Snapping a whole bunch of photos, and hoping that sooner or later you get lucky and hit the shutter button or cable release button at exactly the right time.

Night time lightning is MUCH easier to shoot! As I showed you above, you’re going to use a long exposure with your camera on a tripod. The long exposure DRAMATICALLY improves your odds of getting a lightning photo!
For those of you who have DSLR’s, all you’ll need is a shutter release cable to take your photos without shaking your camera. For those of you with point-and-shoot cameras, you’ll set the timer on your camera for 10 seconds. The ten second timer will give your camera time to stop vibrating after you push the shutter button. You’ll just continue taking a series of photos until you get one, or until you fill your memory card. If you fill your memory card and don’t get a shot, empty the card and start again.

 The Payoff!

 If you set your settings correctly and are persistent, there’s a good chance you will be successful!

Here are a few examples of some of MY lightning photos from over the years. Most of them were shot using the very same techniques I just described to you…





This photo, taken in August of 1998 was shot with an SLR,

the film version of the professional DSLR's you see today.

I used the same, or similar settings to those described above, 

and the same equipment...a tripod and a shutter release.

This photo was among my first successful lightning photos

"ELECTRIC RAINBOW"



Taking a lightning photo with a point-and-shoot camera can
be difficult, for sure! But this photo I took in 2006 proves that
it's not impossible. The camera was a Kodak Easyshare C330
point-and-shoot camera. Not only did I manage to push the
shutter button at EXACTLY the right time, but I was also holding
the camera in this instance, as opposed to using a tripod.
As I mentioned in the article, this lightning was captured on the
backside of this storm as it was moving away from me.

"TRACKS"

With practice and patients, this is the kind of photo you could eventually take!

 

 

If you end up with some lightning photos, please share them with us, and tells us all about your experience! We'd love to hear from you!!!