We were hit by the cyclone Leila causing floods and a fair amount of lightning damage as well. I did however manage to get these using a remote trigger and a gorilla-pod.

Full set can be seen here Fluidr / yador's "Electrical storm" set

[Adam]

The first and last ones simply look fantastic! Could you explain your technique for these? I've always wondered about how something like this is done, and haven't had much of a change to play around with it.

[Tuner571]

Great series of amazing shots, the first is definitely my favorite! As Adam said I too would like to know the technique you used on these shots.

Thanks,
Cory

[Ex Finn.]

Some of the best shots I have seen in a long while, well done.

Cheers, Mike.

[Jools]

Simply amazing! Love the color as well.
I too, am curious as to your technique.

[Sailor]

wow - the first one is spectacular.

Jer

[wed7]

Awesome shots. I like the first too!

[nirudha]

Hi,

First off thanks for all the comments! Glad everyone enjoyed the pics.

As for the technique:

1. Wide lens since it's hard to predict where in the sky lightning will appear. My 18-55 kit lens in this case.
2. Some solid place to keep the camera still. These are all long exposures. I used a gorilla pod wrapped around a window grill.
3. Remote preferably with a lock. You can hold a regular or wireless remote button as well but it just gets painful. I used a Chinese remote purchased on ebay which was linked to on this forum.
4. Set the focus to infinity and the lens to the widest focal length. You can also play around with aperture but I stayed with F numbers between 8 and 16. I forgot about the focus in the first few shots I took but I do like some of them.
5. Make sure your on ISO 100. Knock off Shake Reduction. Personally I don't think it should be on as a default
6. Switch to "Bulb" mode on the camera.
7. Trigger exposure and lock it or hold the button down.
8. Keep the exposure going till you see some nice lightning bolts or when it's taking too long. That was around 1 min in my case but it depends on the ambient light levels so you need to find out. Keep in mind some cameras including my K20D take a dark exposure for noise reduction which takes as long as the original exposure. Be prepared to wait
9. The blue is because I set the white balance to "Tungsten." You can do this post process if your shooting RAW.

This same method should work for fireworks too.

Cheers,

Nirudha

[Nitrok]

Wow nice electric photos! The first one looks like a real blast.

[NaClH2O]

Nice shots and thanks for the explanation

NaCl(now all I have to wait for is the lighting)H2O

[Mechan1k]

Nice series indeed ... I really like the effect of the sky in the 2nd one with the lightning behind it.

[nirudha]

Just thought you might be interested to note a much more "low tech" variation of the technique I read about. It will work especially well for fireworks but might be too slow for lightning.

1. Switch to bulb mode. Use a tripod and low exposure etc for long exposure shooting.
2. Trigger the exposure and cover the lens with a matte black card or paper.
3. When ever there are fireworks going off you lift up the card.
4. When the blast dies of you cover with the card again and you repeat a few times.

Hope I get the chance to try that one out