When I'm shooting right now I'm pretty much sticking to night shots with city lights in the distance. I'm using 100 ISO and have the shutter opened for about 15 to 30 seconds with roughly a F/4to6... Lightening is usually about 2-10 miles away. I'm getting pictures that the lightning is either really dark and faded or the lights are over exposed... Just can't seem to figure the camera out. It's a digital rebel and I either use the lens that came with it or a Sigma 200m zoom that can get a lower apeture setting.
Hey Evan,
For night shots using 50mm or 135mm, F4 is my favorite stop but I will shoot 5.6 as well if there are brighter manmade light sources in the image.
Rather than the 100 ISO, try 64 or 50...slowing it down.
I'm getting pictures that the lightning is either really dark and faded or the lights are over exposed...
If the lightning is too thin, open it up a few stops. I find F8 and F11 too tight for most lightning bolts. Even shooting multi-branch at closer range, those settings produced thin lightning. The problem is compounded with a long lens because light has farther to go through the lens anyway. I would go 5.6 at the tightest.
Observation of storm rhythms will get you more opportunities for balanced shots. Try to shoot the lightning first. If you get a nice bolt, you can always leave the shutter open for a few seconds longer to properly expose the foreground (the foreground isn't going anywhere so the control of that part of the exposure is entirely your call), or use the black card method, as in shooting 4th of July fireworks. Place and remove the card from in front of the lens at different times. This will give you full control over how long to expose the city lights, etc. This also mitigates airplane paths and headlight pollution because the card will be covering the lens up during those times and you can lift it when the sky is free of obstructions. You'll need to make sure the tripod doesn't move.
Some of the best exposures come after the haboob has passed through and the rain has washed the sand out of the air. If you have a storm that comes in around 6pm and lasts until 2-3am, you'll get your best shots after midnight. The blue ranges (rather than wine) are more evident when the air is clean, plus, you may luck out with smaller isolated cells on the flanking lines of the big messy ones that came through earlier.
If you can get out of the city, all the better because in the late hours, crews are usually out repairing downed lines and outages and this can delay you with barricades and other travel issues when you have a storm in your sights (what is it about Mesa...the traffic lights are always out during Monsoon...no matter how far I have been driving I always seem to have to go through Mesa at some point :?). How far out do you drive? I drive hundreds of miles and sometimes all night... getting away from cities makes a huge difference to me but everybody shoots lightning differently...
My exposure times are 4-20 secs. I usually don't go over because reciprocity law failure (when the color in the film maxes out producing a brownish-green washout). However, I shoot a film camera. If a bolt comes, I close once I know the city is exposed correctly. It's personal choice anyway for me not to shoot multiple bolts (it doesn't happen in nature that way so I don't shoot it that way) so I don't leave it open very long.
Night lightning is of course a different animal than daytime. There's one thing to remember in the daytime though...lightning looks deceptively less threatening, even if its just yards away.
Catching the daytime branching shot is tall order but with a slow film, tight aperture and good observation of the storm rhythms, achieving the shot is not impossible. You will see out in the field that the lightning has a method of sorts in different areas of the storm structure. Watch the rhythm and you can pop a shot or two in time. Trace beautylight from dawn or dusk might offer a daytime-looking environment but with longer times you can leave the shutter open. You might try that for daytime strikes and it will give you rich color.
I do not use lightning triggers. Many of them will trigger the camera, no matter where the lightning happens to be (behind you...out of frame, etc.) and waste frames. To tell you the truth, observation weighs out over gadgets. You can't predict what lightning will do but there are behaviors.
Practice on the city lights and nighttime subject matter and scout out your vantage points before Monsoon starts. When you get those nailed you'll be in good shape.
