Focusing in the dark for lightning shots

[Mike Hollingshead]

Here it is, unedited.... photobucket resized it because it was too big.

Would also like to add it was not raining where I was taking the shots. To answer Mike's question, no I didn't.


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On the back of your rebel there should be a button towards the upper right hand side. There are two right next to each other. The left one is the exposure lock(it has a * sign right above it). To the right of it there is a box with a row of 3 boxes inside it going left to right and another row going up and down. Push that right button while looking into the viewfinder. When you push it the dots or dot should turn red. If they are all red(which I assume they are) then it is using them all to find the right exposure as well as using them to focus. After pushing it and while they are red scroll the dial and you can see it switch from all to one at a time. I always have it so the middle one is red. That point/dot will be what will decide your exposure and where it focuses. It is important to notice where you have that when taking the shots since it will now expose for that location. Alot of times I'll just exposure lock with that dot on the sky and offset the compensation some(to the right). I'm sure that is why it wouldn't focus on the light source. You'll only have to change it the one time as it will stay there until you change it.

 

[Laura Duchesne]

Thanks very much, Mike. I made that change in the camera (they used to be all red). I will try shooting this way from now on. It's amazing how there is so much to think about when shooting with digital cameras compared to film cameras.

Now to wish for some nice lightning at night! :blink:

 

[David Wolfson]

??? I don't think it has much if anything to do with digital vs. film Rebel. You have to make sure that all your settings are manual including focus, and pre-set that to infinity. Since the kit lens is also no optical prize wide-open you want to keep your apertures at least f8 for sharpness IMO.

 

[Martin Kucera]

Speaking of lightning photography the film cameras/slide film are still much better option when it comes to final image quality and probably will be for some time in future. The digital world is quite decent and a cheap alternative though.

Martin Kucera
FloridaLightning.com

 

[cedwards]

I use the Canon Digital Rebel. What I do is zoom in to a distant light on autofocus. let it focus, then lock it on manual. Then I zoom out and set up for the lightning. My biggest problem is seeing the horizon to level the camera.
[attachmentid=442]

 

[Aaron Kennedy]

AS far as leveling goes... that's what digital is for. I usually do a quick ISO 1600 ~10s shot and then preview on back of the camera to make sure the camera is level. Then I shoot away!

Aaron

 

[Oscar van der Velde]

Good tip for levelling, Aaron! Then don't forget to set ISO back, or you'll regret it

As for the focus, you will have way less hassle if you buy a fixed focal length lens, e.g 35mm f/2. These can simply be set to the end of the focus scale so you will be fine in a fraction of a second, also easy after changing lenses, etc. Some lenses with a focus scale will be at infinity not at the end. You need to keep a light with you to check the marks. These lenses usually also perform better than zooms at lower f-numbers.

For exposure, this is purely determined by aperture and ISO for the flash, and by exposure time, ISO and aperture for the scenery light. Your ideal exposure will have a bright but not overexposed lightning flash, and a not overexposed scenery. So you set the ISO (100, only when you have to go brighter than your maximum lens aperture allows increase it) and aperture for the flash according to their brightness and distance, then use the meter or your experience to determine the exposure time for the surroundings, e.g. if you are in a street with some sodium lights, you would typically arrive at about 6 seconds at f/5.6. This is reasonably simple, but in practice you will notice that city lights make the sky orange. You will want a pure flash colour, not mixed with too much orange. Same for dusk situations where you want to show a flash (maybe even without a channel in it) in the still visible updraft tower: the flash has to expose relatively bright compared to the clouds, so arrange your exposure time for the storm like -0.5 to -1 stop. In that situation you do not want a motion-blurred storm so you typically get only 2 seconds exposure time.... there is no free lunch. I use to hear many people about using f/11 or even f/22 in dusk situations, some mounting a polarizer, to get more exposure time. You may try, but you will not see normal cloud flashes, and lightning channels become very skinny, unless the storm is very close to you with bright strikes, and the clouds will become blurry due to their movement.

You will undoubtedly find Murphy on your side. The best flashes always happen when you're not yet/anymore set up, or erasing pictures with nothing, to make space.... or during any other adjustments, or lightning playing cat-and-mouse: you start aiming there, then lightning happens where you had aimed before, and so on...

Good luck!
Oscar

 

[John Farley]

Hey, everyone, thanks for all the helpful information in this thread. Following the suggestions of adjusting the autofocus so I just had one focal point and autofocusing on a light on the horizon, I was able to get this picture as a storm passed to our north a couple nights ago:

[attachmentid=451]

Definitely better than quite a few I have gotten trying to set the focus manually for night lighting photography.

 

[beaudodson]

Bump for good threat...

The idea of trying to focus on a light in the distance sounds like a good one. I have been setting it to infinity. Will defin have to try this...the next time we have lightning. My bigger issue is setting the Aperture - I see most in here are suggesting F5 or so. Give or take. Will have to try that as well.

 

[David Drufke]

I usually stop down to f/11 - f/22 so that I don't have to worry about the focus so much. The bigger the f/ number, the wider your depth of field or area that is in focus. Your lens.. and all lenses can stop down that low.. the range on your lens is the widest you len's ap. can open, not the lowest it can be stopped down. The reason it's a range is because your lens has a different ap. "wide open" when you are zoomed in than when it's zoomed out.

 

[Jeremy Ludin]

The lightning exposure itself has nothing to do with shutter speed. That is important to remember. If you stopped it down you'd have to expose for the scene longer if you wanted it lit up. Some closer bolts you'll have to stop down from 3.5.

As for the focus, I will often just find a street light out on the horizon. I'll set my meter/focus point to center(it's always there anyway) and grab a light out there with auto focus and then flip it back to manual and leave it. That seems to work the best for me as the infinity spot on the 17-40L is pretty wide and I think is that way because of temperature differences...I don't know. I've gotten them to be in focus quicker grabbing a street light than finding that right spot manually. And that is with the 17-40L which is pretty good to manual focus with. Many of the others I've had were a joke to manual focus with.

I do this same thing, but there have been times where the picture still came out very soft for some reason. I have used MF with the 17-40 and it did work, but I don't like taking the time to find the right spot. I find the furthest light source and AF on that point, then flip it to manual like MH said. My aperture ranges from 4.5 to 8, depending on how frequent flashes are and how far away/close they are.

 

[Mike Hollingshead]

I usually stop down to f/11 - f/22 so that I don't have to worry about the focus so much. The bigger the f/ number, the wider your depth of field or area that is in focus. Your lens.. and all lenses can stop down that low.. the range on your lens is the widest you len's ap. can open, not the lowest it can be stopped down. The reason it's a range is because your lens has a different ap. "wide open" when you are zoomed in than when it's zoomed out.

The problem is F11 alone is often too much stopping down. It's not all that hard to focus in the dark. If there is no light to autofocus on and you don't have a good, easy to do manual focus on the lens, I'd try the route Aaron mentioned(take some 1600 iso stills and check via lcd till you get it right). Using autofocus on a bright street light works pretty well on both my lenses(you must have it on one metering point though, obviously).

 

[Dan Robinson]

I wonder if it would be easier to just put an old manual lens on a digital SLR for lightning. You can get a 28mm lens for $20 bucks on eBay. No more focusing/aperture issues.

 

[Mike Hollingshead]

I wonder if it would be easier to just put an old manual lens on a digital SLR for lightning. You can get a 28mm lens for $20 bucks on eBay. No more focusing/aperture issues.

A new one works, but it can be hard to see exactly how well focused you are with wide angle shots.

 

[John Diel]

Dan,

You will still have to focus and set the aperture. I haven't followed the whole thread, but essentially what you are doing with most digital cameras is bypassing the automatic controls in favor of manual control. At least with most DSLR's. Once you are in manual mode and manual focus, it's pretty much the same.

I think what you are talking about would be a fixed focus lens of some type.

Ideally, if you can find one, is to change out your focusing screen to a split prism style. These can be found for certain cameras that allow you to change the focusing screen. I believe you can also do this for the Canon 10/20D with a little bit of knowledge on how to modify the new screen to fit.

Believe it or not, one of my best full frame lightning shots came from an 80-210mm F4 Canon lens. It was luck that I was able to get the shot at all, much less the full bolt in the frame.

-- John