The secret to shooting great lightning

[Jeff Duda]

I recently purchased a Nikon D40 DSLR and began some amateur photography. I've had many opportunities to shoot lightning recently and have gotten many CGs and bolts in frame, but every shot almost always has a flaw: it (the lightning) is not in focus. Obviously I can't use auto-focus when shooting at night, so I've been tweaking the focus ring on the lens to try to manually focus, but I can never seem to quite get it crisp and clear. See some examples here:

I would be even more excited about these shots if they were crisp and well focused, but I failed. Are there any secrets or methods that you use to shoot lightning well in focus in low light conditions? Am I missing something obvious?

 

[Zack Cooper]

I personally think they are great shots.

 

[Jason Foster]

Good lenses are a must. After that a good tripod, which will not shake at all! Then you just have to get use to focusing correctly. Manual seems to be the way to go on the focus, although if you are like me...it's difficult sometimes. A fixed focal length is an option.

Lots of practice in and outside lightning conditions. I find that if one practices a lot of night time shooting, they get use to the necessary means and talents. Patience is also a major thing.

Of course you probably know most of this already, and are looking for specific secrets. The only one, which isn't a major secret, being there is a thread on it, is the lightning detector module that will help you and the camera trigger the shot when needed and not waste endless misfires.

Oh...and in intense storms. Get to know when you camera runs of out memory on rapid fire. Most newer cams...it's probably a lot, but still...check it out.

 

[Jim Saueressig]

A distant light to focus on might help but you will always have some focus misses with some lenses as they are plastic and the true focal point of infinity changes a bit with various temps. Stopping down a bit tighter might help sharpen it up a bit was well.

 

[Steven Williams]

My 3 thoughts:
1. Use manual focus and focus on infinity - this will put any lightning bolt in focus.
2. Avoid camera shake - use a tripod and remote release, watch out for the wind!
3. Shoot in RAW - it has better exposure adjustment capability.

 

[Jeremy Jones]

One thing you might try is taking the filter off the lens when shooting lightning at night. If there is extreme humidity out, then it can fog the filter up a bit.

Second, does your focal ring stop at infinity or does it just keep spinning? If it keeps spinning, then you need to find an object that is furthest away and try to focus in correctly on it. Trust me, shooting lightning can sometimes make me want to bang me head on a brick wall! You just need practice! Also, since you are using a Nikon, I would highly suggest getting Nikon Capture. It's what I use to to process my shots while in RAW, and to adjust my EV values, and for slight sharpening.

Also, using a cable release for your shutter is extremely useful, especially since your D40 is made of lighter material than most of the bigger ones. Keeping your hands on the camera only leads to a shaking motion.
After a while you'll get the hang of it.

I hope this helps a bit.

 

[Mike Hollingshead]

Too bad the D40 doesn't have live view. It can make manual focusing a cinch....much more than some tiny viewfinder is ever going to do. Autofocusing on a light source can work as mentioned, just make sure you set the thing to one metering/focus point if you do so and put that on the light source.

Infinity can change with heat and with focal range on some zooms so sometimes marking the lens is of little use.

And I swear, some lightning will just insist on being soft. Probably not most but some sure seems to like softness while other stuff is sharp.

Live view can be amazing for showing you just how *tight* the range is on getting a good manual setting. Cause 10x on a 3 inch screen is like focusing on a 30 inch view rather than the view finder view. Like around pixel level. Once I was able to do this and see how *tight* manual focus was on some lenses, it made perfect sense why it was so hard to get tack sharp images before.

 

[Patrick Martin]

1. A sturdy tripod is a must!
2. Shoot at a low ISO. You shot these at 400, which is probably the limit of how high you want to be. A lower ISO will help cut down noise and/or the opportunity for any hot pixels to show up that you'll need to clean up in post processing.
3. Stopping down to F8 or so is also a must. Shooting with the lens wide open will just result in to much opportunity for the lightning to be out of the depth of field that is in focus, or risk blowing out the highlights. #2 is a great example of this. It was shot at f/3.5, which is why the lights and lightning are blown out. Keeping the same 13sec/ISO400 exposure, but stopping down would have brought the lights down, and sharpened up your lightning. (also level your horizon in post processing).
4. Have a frame of reference in your shot. #2 has the best with a definitive horizon and things to anchor your scene, but the others with just the corners of building lose a lot in the translation/impact of the lightning.
5. Patience! It'll take a lot of shots to get a few keepers.
6. Keep shooting!!! You are off to a great start!!

 

[Jayson Prentice]

Looking at the EXIF data of the pictures there are a few adjustments that you can make that will likely help your images. The first one and definitely one to change is the aperture, one of the images was f/3.5, I will typically always shoot in the f/5-f/8 range with lightning to help the lens have a wider range of focus.

As many others have said, the best way to get a lens to focus for 'infinity' is by finding the furthest object (distant yard light, distant tower, etc.) and have the camera focus on it. One thing that is important when doing this is that once you get the focus set and switch it to manual, you shouldn't adjust the zoom of the lens as it will throw the focus off again. The ISO settings are sort of interchangeable depending on your location, but I would suggest only ranging from the 100-400 for any conditions.

Now to finish of the shots and make them truly pop, get out away from the city or find a location that is 'higher up' looking over parts of the city. Having corners of buildings in shots just doesn't bode well for getting a gorgeous lightning shot... I assume you have a tripod? Another thing that will help avoid camera shake is getting a shutter remote, it'll avoid any camera shake while you hold the shutter down.

As always, you get better with practice. Off to a good start, just a little bit more learning to get everything in focus and then you should be good to go.

 

[Rob H]

I always shoot lightning at 100 ISO, and a pretty low F-stop. Focusing on a distant light has been helpful as someone else mentioned. I also make it a point to go with faster exposures. 15 seconds seems to be my magic exposure time for pure night shots with lightning every minute or so. I'll stand back and use the remote shutter and after 5-6 pictures I should have at least one decent bolt. You have half as much work to do with a 30 second exposure, but I find that more light can pollute the exposure and clicking a button every 15 seconds isn't that taxing in the grand scheme of things. Especially so when you have static light sources, such as in your second picture.

As a side note, I don't think you failed. They're amazing shots and now you just have some self-incentive to keep trying to get better shots. That's what keeps us all coming back to weather I think.

 

[Jeff Duda]

Yes, I have been using a tripod and the particular conditions I've shot in included dead calm winds as well as very light winds with light rain (some drops have gotten on the lens during exposure

The idea of finding a distant light to focus on had crossed my mind and I have tried that. I was out again last night with a better setup and was able to find some very distant lights to focus on and I think that helped. However, I was not aware of how much affect the f-stop value had on it. I was just opening the aperture wide to make the exposure as bright as I could get it without having to leave the shutter open for a really long time, so thank you for that hint. I also was not aware that the focus would actually shift when I zoomed! I was trying to do something like "critical focus" does with a TV camera in that I zoom into something far away, focus on it, then zoom back out and shoot. Looks like I shouldn't do that.

Thanks to everyone for their helpful hints.

 

[Mike Hollingshead]

I also was not aware that the focus would actually shift when I zoomed!

There are some lenses that are parafocal and infinity won't change when you change focal length. Another good thing about live view is one can see if that is indeed the case with a given lens. Though it's probably listed somewhere in some spec.

As for what Fstop to use as a guide or even ISO...it gets pretty simple after little trial and error. You'll probably see there is no real good set range, other than for given "situations"...so it all varies. I've needed to use 800 ISO with a 50mm at F1.8 before. Murky airmass with storms at least somewhat far away. Then there is simply the desire to expose the storm or some scene, which will rapidly take one out of the 100 ISO F9-11 type of idea you'd use on just some closer bolts. Better to use the camera and the knowledge of what those changes are doing and just see how it works.

I often will find myself just wanting to get a close bolt exposed well, if I could be lucky enough to get one. So often all other bolts might want 100 ISO and like F8 or something. But get that freak one to hit near you and well you may have wished for F16 or more lol. I'll go out and just blow all the exposures since most aren't cool unless they happen to be really close....or have a cool scene with them like a storm at twilight or something.

I've just found there's really little in the way of some set rule and that really, it's not hard to go out and tool around and see this and what might be desired. Especially in the digital age obviously.

First rule for anyone extremely new to lightning photography is....shutter means ziltch for the bolt itself. I know you get that but figured I'd toss it in here anyway for others. ISO and Fstop all that matter. One thing I never find myself really wanting to say is to use a tripod. Seriously if you think far into that whole deal. Just if the person doesn't get they need a tripod(and oh I know they exist) I then figure it's just probably not going to matter beyond that then anyway.

 

[Greg Campbell]

Apart from focus issues, stopping down to F5.6~f8 will usually result in the lens operating in it's optimally sharp range. This can also minimize flare and ghosting to varying degrees. Besides, f3.5 is almost always too bright for lightning. Start at 6.7~8 at ISO 100.

(To accidentally echo what Mike wrote just a few minute's ago.) The basic rule is: Adjust aperture (and ISO if needed) to match the lightning's inherent brightness (atmospheric transparency, distance, etc); and adjust shutter speed to achieve proper exposure of clouds, foreground, etc.

As with any other photography, take the effort to find a pretty scene before blazing away. IMO, the 'best' lightning shots are aesthetic images that just happen to have lightning in them. Whenever you're driving about, look for interesting landscapes with good visibility and access. When storms approach, get out there and make that special shot happen! (I know we don't always have that luxury, and wind up with pictures of the neighbor's roof. FWIW, I'm never happy with these pics, no matter how fantastic the lightning is.)

Forget a lightning trigger for twilight / night shooting. Just determine your basic exposure and lock the shutter. This isn't nearly as much fun as anticipating the lightning, but does do the job.

One more tip, if shooting RAW, disable the RAW utility's sharpening feature. The USM found in Canon's DPP is poorly tuned for lightning and often causes notable halo effects. Use PS or whatever to sharpen, and play with the radius values for best results.

 

[Gerrit Gulden]

Hi Jeff, I too am using the Nikon D40 DSLR and have experienced what you explain in your first post. I shot one particular storm one night and the result was over 50 unfocused images. I was so upset cause the Images looked fine on the camera and I thought they were focused.

Ever since that day I make absolutely sure that may lens is in focus. As you know, there is no "infinity" symbol on the Factory lens that comes with the D40. So setting to Infinity for us is no use. I typically focus all the way back to where the dot is on 18 on the lens. I then will turn the "focus" part of the lens all the way to the left and then slowly turn to the right till everything is in focus.

At night I like to Pick a light in the distance while my camera is on a tripod and I will focus till that light is a perfect little dot. Look thru your lens to see what I mean. A perfect small tiny dot is a good indication that your lens is in focus. I will take a quick 30 second exposure to make sure the focus is good.

ANY time you move the camera or tripod you want to double check the lens. I know it sounds like alot of work, but its worth it in the end.

Ever since that day I am going the distance to make certain that each image will be focused perfectly. Here are some pictures.

Hope that helps.

 

[Greg Campbell]

Autofocus has never been much more than a gimmick, and it can really get in the way of after-dark photography. If you're having perennial focus issues, just buy an old manual focus lens and a $10 adapter. I've got an Oly 28/3.5; it cost me something like $20 and takes fantastic shots. Turn the lens 'till it stops and you're there - no fiddle farting in the dark. Ain't modern technology grand!