Last night's storm - DPChallenge Forums

Canon EF-S 55-250mm f/4-5.6 IS

07/14/2004 10:25:56 PM · #1

Taken last night from about 11:35pm to 11:45pm. Things got nasty in a hurry, and the lightning got uncomfortably close. With the last pic, the whole pic was basically white, did three "multiply" layers to get some detail. Thunder was deafening. Since I had this big metal tripod in front of me, I decided to go inside (wimpy, I know). Unfortunately, the shot July 193 only captured part of the second to last bolt which was close, but very detailed and had many offshoots - only one of which was in my camera view.

Pics are low-res (about 50 to 80k), but for my first attempt at storm pics, what do you think? I like the way distant lightning brought out the otherwise unviewable clouds in the dark of night (in the first 2 pics below).

Canon EOS-60D

07/14/2004 10:28:19 PM · #2

Wimpy, no...you were seconds from death! Note to self...no large metal things in hands when lighting is striking across the street.

Great shots, BTW. I had my first opportunity to take lighting shots last week on vacation, but they didn't turn out half that good. Spooky! :o)

07/14/2004 10:31:34 PM · #3

I'm a bit of a hypochondriac perhaps, but my ears are still ringing a bit from the last two bolts. Far too close!

carrieann

Olympus SP-550 UZ

07/14/2004 10:38:03 PM · #4

sweet! awesome captures. i so want to photography lightning. ?how do you catch it

ButterflySis

Canon EOS-50D

Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II

07/14/2004 10:42:50 PM · #5

Originally posted by carrieann:

sweet! awesome captures. i so want to photography lightning. ?how do you catch it

Hold a lightning rod?

:-)

Great stuff, Matt! You were seriously too close! Be very careful.

Canon 12x IS USM (S3 IS built-in Lens) -- 36-432mm (35mm EQ)

07/14/2004 10:53:16 PM · #6

Originally posted by ButterflySis:

Originally posted by carrieann:
sweet! awesome captures. i so want to photography lightning. ?how do you catch it

Hold a lightning rod?

:-)

Great stuff, Matt! You were seriously too close! Be very careful.

It was not my intention to be that close - I was standing on my front porch. The lightning came to me, not the other way around I assure you. And it only took two really, really close strikes to drive me inside. Me thinks I'm getting smarter in my advanced age. :-)

Carrieann- I got those pics with extended exposure times (3 to 8 seconds or so). I pushed the button and hoped something would happen during the exposure. If I were to do it again, I would probably do longer exposure times to reduce the number of empty frames. The posted pics are sequentially numbered, I took a total of about 16 pics. Several turned out solid black because no lightning strikes occurred.

GeneralE

Canon PowerShot S3 IS

07/14/2004 10:55:34 PM · #7

Someone once asked Lee Trevino what he'd do if caught on the golf course during a lightning storm.

"Oh, I'd just get out my one-iron and hold it up over my head," he replied.

"Why-ever would you do that?!" asked the shocked (figuratively) interviewer.

"Well," he responded, "my daddy always told me that not even God can hit a one-iron."

dustin03

Canon EOS-20D

Canon EF 17-40mm f/4L USM

07/14/2004 10:59:50 PM · #8

Originally posted by carrieann:

sweet! awesome captures. i so want to photography lightning. ?how do you catch it

How do you catch lighting? Carfully...it will burn you!!...:) For real, if your camera has settings to shoot muliti-images...3-5 frames per second is idea and or "Bulb", where you can hold the shutter down by hand perferbally by remote....you don't want to shake your camera because it's on a long exposere setting...

I have tried and tried and tried.....I mangage to get one shot out of nearly 1000 or more images.
I have found the best way is to watch where the lighting is striking most and aim there of course and kinda count between strikes...I have my focus set and on manural...set the frameing where you want it...cut out any objects that you don' wnat...I like to shoot as fast as I can so depending on the lighting....I'm at 400 ISO, Shutter around 250....it really depends wither it's day or night when shooting lighting....it just take some practice...very challengeing I must say and exciteing too...I have came close to a few strikes myself and had to run for cover....it can be very dangerous...also, have a lot of storage...your card will fill up fast...if conditions are right....I'll have my laptop used as my storage and can shoot forever, sorta speak...too, use a tripod.

Overall, Just set up your cameras focus, exposers, frameing, and then just start shooting and don't stop until it get to dangerous or your card runs out of space and hope you got one good shot.

dustin03

Canon EOS-20D

Canon EF 17-40mm f/4L USM

07/14/2004 11:12:37 PM · #9

Congrats for captureing some lighting and they seem to be very well done....I feel the power!!

EddyG

Canon EOS-1D Mark II

Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM

07/14/2004 11:43:04 PM · #10

Originally posted by carrieann:

how do you catch it

Either a lot of luck, or you spend some money and get a Lightning Trigger and a camera with very low shutter lag... =]

TooCool

Canon EOS-300D Rebel

Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II

07/14/2004 11:51:49 PM · #11

I was told to stop down the aperature for a longer exposure times (f10 or so), point the camera in the direction that the lightning is striking and click. Some luck involved, but the timing isn't as critical this way...

Canon EF-S 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS

07/15/2004 12:03:31 AM · #12

Originally posted by TooCool:

Some luck involved, but the timing isn't as critical this way...

Certainly true. There were bolts of lightning every 10 seconds or so all over the place last night. The darkness permitted long exposure times, so timing was not critical. I imagine it's much tougher to capture lightning during the day when it may not be easy or possible to use the long shutter times. But I haven't tried that yet.

jab119

Canon EOS-70D

07/15/2004 12:10:37 AM · #13

excelent shots, it is very scary being that close to the action when it comes to lightning.

I love shooting lightning an have a few decent pics. I found using a remote with the camera in BULB mode I can just keep clicking shots and close the shuter beween 10 @ 20 seconds, Lightning 1

but sometimes you get lucky and get a great shot under 5 seconds.
3 Second Shot

here is one tha was pretty close, I actually put the camera away and went and hid after this one.
close

James

Bran-O-Rama

Canon EOS-5D

Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM

07/15/2004 05:13:58 AM · #14

The last two shots were awesome, jab119!

briphoto

Nikon D700

Nikon AF-S Nikkor 50mm f/1.4G

07/15/2004 05:33:16 AM · #15

Where you at? I ask because we had a terrific lightning storm here in the Phoenix area last night. An unusually powerful one even for here in the Monsoon season. I wanted to get my camera out and start shooting, but we have 2 story houses that block our view around us. Too late to go out driving around.

Imagineer

Canon EOS-5D Mark II

Canon EF-S 17-85mm f/4-5.6 IS USM

07/15/2004 07:48:07 AM · #16

Great shots. You do have to be careful though. Lightning can travel laterally up to a mile from the 'centre' of a storm. I witnessed this on a golf course once and I've also had lightning strike within 100 feet of me three times - so close that all I heard on each occasion was a dry crackins sound and no rumble!