[desertscape]

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Safety can't be overemphasized. I've been shooting lightning for 19 years now and was careful about being too close. However, while waiting for a storm to approach from a mountain range 12 miles away, I was sitting on the side of a hill and saw no lightning. I was thinking that this storm was not going to produce any. Then, BOOM, the first strike of the storm hit very close to me. I got a lesson in lightning safety. Most of my lightning shots are now taken from the upper story of my house.

[frooggy]

I have built 2 of these so far. One for a present and one for me. Works great during the day when you cant leave the trigger open long. But night is still best with bulb mode. Link

I built a wired one. Not the IR trigger one.

[Racer X 69]

I don't know that you need triggers, do you? Just using a 10 to 20 second exposure, f8, iso 400 seems to work pretty well.

I keep coming back to this shot. It really hits something deep with me. The lightning looks so much like the roots of a tree. Fantastic shot.

[rbefly]

Hello lesmore49,
I agree with Rondec, what you need are good techniques, time and patience.
Here are a couple I took during a recent, very severe thunderstorm. Pentax K10D, Miranda 24mm f/2.8, ISO 100, tripod, cable release. Aperture Priority (Av) mode, f/6.7, exposure times 4 to 6 seconds. I also played with -1/2 to -1.0 Ev, but this depends on your taste on foreground detail or all-black sky and landscape. With no Ev, you'll get more foreground detail and a lighter overall photo, but the lightning will lack contrast.
Set up in a safe place (I should take my own advice, was under a tall tree!) like a wooden shelter or overhang; this is mainly to keep the lens dry, water droplets won't enhance the photos at all. Just keep clicking every time the the previous photo shows up on the LCD screen. One "Strike" photo out of 20-30 frames would be considered a good ratio. Some form of rain covering, plastic bag or camera hood is nice, there are many available from eBay or you can rig one up with plastic bags and rubber bands. A skylight, CPL or ND filter is very useful, chances are you'll have to wipe the lens eventually. It's better to wipe a filter than the front optic of a lens. Lens hood is a must, but won't stop blowing rain.
The longer the shutter speed, the more chances you'll catch a flash, all things being equal. So, in my case, f/8.0 ran about 8 seconds in Av. Stopping down to f/11.0 would require a 16 second shutter speed (one full stop, lets in 1/2 the light, so the shutter speed doubles to create the same exposure. Half the light, twice the time), f/16 would run 32.0 seconds, and so on. There can be problems with very small (high f-number) apertures, to avoid this a ND # 8 or # 9 will darken the scene 3 full stops. In my case the 'crash-boom!'s were only about a minute apart at the peak, I just kept clicking.
Good luck and tell your friend to stay safe!
Ron

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[Sagitta]

You also need luck. Unless you're somewhere where these things are commonplace you won't really get much practice time. That said, when things DO come together, they can be wonderful.




Also, don't forget that just because the lightning itself may be unshootable, its effects still can be.



Top shot was done with the camera resting on a bean bag on the car window frame, bottom was with a tripod. It was the same storm. I haven't been nearly lucky enough to have a night storm present itself up my way since.

[Sagitta]

Oh! And shoot RAW. You'll want and NEED to be able to mess with the shots after the fact to make them more presentable, especially if you're using unconventional means to stabilize your camera. Shooting as a JPG won't cut it unless you get extremely lucky.

This is that first shot pre-postwork.

[rbefly]

Hi Sagitta, nice series of shots! You did a great job of PP on the first one. Do you use LR4?
You're right about the luck factor, I've tried to capture t-storms before but didn't get out in time, or they had moved away, too low on the horizon, etc.
Now I've thrown a "Camera Rain Cover" from eBay in the car trunk, along with a couple of cheap rain ponchos, narrowed my photo gear down to one body and a 24mm prime, the DA 16-45mm and a Sigma 28-70mm. The 24mm and Sigma zoom both take 52mm filters, so I take a 52mm CPL and ND # 8's, also.
Definitely shoot in RAW, thanks for mentioning that. Mine came out very purple, with or without the ND, needed quite a bit of work to get the blue/black sky.
Best advice is, if you see/hear a storm, grab the stuff and get to a clear spot as quickly as you can. By clear, I mean a location where you have an unobstructed view of the storm and sky, but hopefully you're in or under some form of shelter. It's good to have an SD card that's large and fast enough for (literally) hundreds of shots, I used a SanDisk 16GB class 10.
Oh, and a big towel. No matter what, you're going to get wet!
Ron

[Northern Soul]

How about this trigger at $25?

Micro Thunder Trigger (Lightning Trigger for all DSLR cameras) * NEW SUMMER 2012 | eBay

[Sagitta]

Best advice is, if you see/hear a storm, grab the stuff and get to a clear spot as quickly as you can. By clear, I mean a location where you have an unobstructed view of the storm and sky, but hopefully you're in or under some form of shelter. It's good to have an SD card that's large and fast enough for (literally) hundreds of shots, I used a SanDisk 16GB class 10.

I'd recommend scouting out local hilltops/bridges/high spots as well ahead of time. If you know the storm is going to pass north of you, knowing a location with an unobstructed northern view ahead of time will save lots of frustration.

Oh, and a big towel. No matter what, you're going to get wet!

If I'd have tilted the camera juuuuust a bit more upwards for my lightning shots, I would have been grabbing stars. I didn't feel a drop that night, but that's only because I was behind the storm as it headed out over Penobscot Bay, not staring it down coming at me.

[JimJohnson]

How about this trigger at $25?

Micro Thunder Trigger (Lightning Trigger for all DSLR cameras) * NEW SUMMER 2012 | eBay

It is just under US$30 with delivery. I ordered it. While not the most finished looking design, if it works I will be MORE than happy.

Most of the lightning advice in this thread simply won't work well locally. When you live on a peninsula in the middle of the Earth's largest fresh water lake (by surface area), storms tend to split and flow around the peninsula randomly and most lightning strikes are over the water. As a result it is near impossible to predict lightning direction. It could be over the water in front of you, 10-15 miles away on the other shore, or in rare cases, off both sides of the peninsula. By the time you figure out that the lightning will be in front of you, it could be over. Interval based photography will be very hit and mostly, miss. A lightning trigger will greatly improve your chances of getting any usable images.

[Rondec]

I keep coming back to this shot. It really hits something deep with me. The lightning looks so much like the roots of a tree. Fantastic shot.

Thanks. I liked it too.