The secret to shooting great lightning

[Mike Hollingshead]

Any tricks for mosquitoes? (noise not biting..more of convo than real question I figure too lol) Been out a few nights recently and holy crap! Never had them so bad here that I remember, just off the lightning trials I've been messing with them on. Off spray works for the most part so one can get past the being bit part. What I'm having trouble with is the noise! Wow can those things and their buzzing your ears crap drive you batty on a quiet night. I've went back in twice now just because of their noise and relentless attempts at your head. Guess time for some headphones or ear plugs. This would also cure the whole parking by tall corn field and subsequent "things" walking in the stalks right by you. Things that will not run away from you after you make some noise lol. Can only blow that off so long in the dark before it gets to you too. Then there are the coyotes. Man it has to suck to be their pray and just hear that cackling.

Also I'm more and more convinced there is a "Bermuda's triangle" here for CGs. Storms get here and wala can't produce a single damn cg. Wish I knew the trick to that whole deal and why some nights you can get nothing but CGs, others hardly any cgs. Lines are pointless obviously but man seems the other stuff never does any around here anymore.

 

[Mike Deep]

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!

Well, for the sake of nitpicking, this is assuming the lens is properly collimated.
But you're absolutely right I think, autofocus has done nothing for photography that doesn't involve blazing, continuous light sources. It can't, really.

I'm not sure how it works in Nikon land, but in Canon land AF is tethered to the shutter button half-press from the factory. That can ruin your day if you're shooting lightning and the lens is in AF mode. AF can be moved to the * button on the back, and higher end bodies tend to have dedicated AF-ON buttons now. That way triggering the remote doesn't make the lens try and AF before the shot. I like to keep micromotor lenses in AF (Without actually using AF) so the motor's resistance prevents bumps or vibrations from wiggling the lens out of focus.

 

[Jeff Duda]

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.

That's exactly what happened to me, Gerrit! The images looked great on the viewfinder on the camera. Then I transferred them to my computer and the ugly truth came out. Glad to know I'm not alone.

Any tricks for mosquitoes? (noise not biting..more of convo than real question I figure too lol) Been out a few nights recently and holy crap! Never had them so bad here that I remember, just off the lightning trials I've been messing with them on. Off spray works for the most part so one can get past the being bit part. What I'm having trouble with is the noise! Wow can those things and their buzzing your ears crap drive you batty on a quiet night. I've went back in twice now just because of their noise and relentless attempts at your head. Guess time for some headphones or ear plugs. This would also cure the whole parking by tall corn field and subsequent "things" walking in the stalks right by you. Things that will not run away from you after you make some noise lol. Can only blow that off so long in the dark before it gets to you too. Then there are the coyotes. Man it has to suck to be their pray and just hear that cackling.

That's exactly what I dealt with last Friday night as I took another stab at lightning photography. There were a couple of previously-tornado warned storms moving south towards Ames and the skies were very clear other than those storms, so the lightning was crazy and quite visible from a long way away. Seems such an occurance in Iowa is rare anymore. I of course parked near a corn field because that's all there is in Iowa. As soon as I got out and set up I was immediately attacked relentlessly by the mosquitoes. I had no Off or long pants or long sleeves to protect me, so I literally beat them off of me for 45 minutes. I had to keep slapping and hitting myself to keep them off me. I noticed that if you keep moving around they won't bother you as easily.

 

[Ed Boik]

I'm a fellow D40 user and the D40 ISO200 behaves much like ISO100. I usually shoot lightning with ISO200 or 400, f/5-f11, manual focus on infinity, on a sturdy tripod, shutter length set to "bulb" and use the IR shutter remote control. Click once to open the shutter, click again to close. I've varied my exposure between 5 and 20 seconds and usually got decent results. I stopped up to f/13 and the bolts (about 20 miles away) ended up rather dim. the ISO200 is very sensitive. In my experience with the kit lens, the sub-f/5 f-stops overexpose the bolts and washes out the contrast.

This shot was taken with the D40 kit lens, 15 second exposure, zoom to 52mm, f/11, iso200. The bolts came out crisp, the exposure was proper.

This one is same lens and zoom, 5 sec exposure, f/7, iso200

same lens and zoom, 22 seconds, f/5.6, iso 200 -one of the first I took that night, unfortunately out of focus.

 

[Jeff Duda]

I'm a fellow D40 user and the D40 ISO200 behaves much like ISO100. I usually shoot lightning with ISO200 or 400, f/5-f11, manual focus on infinity, on a sturdy tripod, shutter length set to "bulb" and use the IR shutter remote control. Click once to open the shutter, click again to close. I've varied my exposure between 5 and 20 seconds and usually got decent results. I stopped up to f/13 and the bolts (about 20 miles away) ended up rather dim. the ISO200 is very sensitive. In my experience with the kit lens, the sub-f/5 f-stops overexpose the bolts and washes out the contrast.

First of all, Ed, those are some pretty nice shots. Second, how do you know when you're focused on infinity? Do you know because you're focused on a light far in the distance or is there some other way of telling?

I usually shoot at ISO 200 or 400 (I only tried 400 to see if part of the problem I was having was due to too long of exposure times so the higher ISO would brighten things up while shortening exposure times).

Looks like the lesson I've learned from this thread is to shoot in the low-f range but not all the way down at f/3.5 or something. I'll try shooting around f/6 to f/8 next time I get an opportunity and see how that works.

 

[Michael O'Keeffe]

First of all, Ed, those are some pretty nice shots. Second, how do you know when you're focused on infinity? Do you know because you're focused on a light far in the distance or is there some other way of telling?

I use the D40 as well and there is no official way of knowing if it is on infinity focus. I do the focusing on a distant light technique and it works fine.

Here is a picture from last night taken my D40 with the kit lens at 18mm.

ISO 200, 30 sec exposure, f/10

 

[Wes Carter]

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!

I agree with most of what you are saying. However, once autofocus became a fairly mature technology it became a godsend for photojournalists. Especially those of us who covered fast action sports.

But for shooting stuff out more than 100-200 feet away or stuff that isn't moving it's not necessary. But I've found that using some of my old manual focus lenses there seems to be a bit more chromatic aberration and lens lens flare that I don't get with my newer el cheapo lenses. I didn't realize they had come that far in lens coatings. Either that or they deteriorate over time.

 

[Greg Campbell]

Well, for the sake of nitpicking, this is assuming the lens is properly collimated.

That, and spend a few extra $ for a quality adapter. The $5 specials have terrible thickness tolerances.
Still, even if there's a little slop, you'll be quite close to proper focus.

 

[Joshua Nall]

I wonder if rain between you and the bolt can make it look out of focus. I know it can make it look washed out, not as crisp. Maybe the out of focus look is a little different.
As for as a good Fstop, I wouldn't go out and say... "Ok, I'm going to try f/6 or f/8 this time", because if the lightning is close, they will all be blown out. If the bolts are out there a ways then 6 or 8 may be fine. I personally had rather get a few bolts that are dim by using a high fstop, even 14 or higher, when they are close, rather than risk blowing out that really close one. Every situation is different.

Patrick, since you mentioned it, do you have personal experience with a small easy to download easy to use program that can do the horizon fix, or anyone else? I've got adobe, maybe it's 2.0 then I have irfanview, and the editor that came with my XT. If they have it, I can't find it. I like this one but the horizon is off.

Edit: Didn't realize how big I had uploaded to photobucket, sorry so large

 

[Trey Thee]

That picture is just superb...wow

 

[Mike Deep]

Patrick, since you mentioned it, do you have personal experience with a small easy to download easy to use program that can do the horizon fix, or anyone else? I've got adobe, maybe it's 2.0 then I have irfanview, and the editor that came with my XT. If they have it, I can't find it. I like this one but the horizon is off.

The latest version of Digital Photo Professional has an angle adjustment tool.

http://usa.canon.com/cusa/support/c...el_t2i_ef_s_18_55mm_is_kit#DriversAndSoftware

An existing installation of DPP has to be present for the upgrade to work.

 

[Ed Boik]

Do you know because you're focused on a light far in the distance or is there some other way of telling?

There is a little dot in the bottom left corner which is a focus indicator and turns on when you are focused in your selected bracket. However, at night it is practically useless. The best thing you could do is take a bunch of practice shots to fine-tune the focus before the lightning show begins.

 

[Andrew Stevens]

Bah! I'm still learning the ways. Tonight I had the opportunity for some more lightning shots, and would of gotten a decent one but it didn't turn out right.

I read over the thread again, I had the F to high(22), where I see its recommended around 5 to 8? Not enough light got in it seems when looking over all of my shots from tonight. They all came out grainy and dark. Plus they where kind of blurry as well.

I was also thinking I should have repositioned into an area that didn't have street lights in front of me, wondering if that had a little bit to do with it not turning out right.

 

[Jayson Prentice]

Not having street lights will be helpful, allowing you to have a longer exposure without worrying about the light pollution those are providing. Also, it appears that the storm is a decent distance away and thus having your aperture of f/22 will be way to high and likely is the cause of having many shots way to dark. As you saw, an aperture between f/5-f/8 is usually good for most occasions of lightning photography.

 

[Jeff Duda]

A random brown-out and the strange occurrence of highly electrical activity despite meager vertical extent of cumulus clouds gave me an excellent opportunity to shoot lightning yesterday in the early evening, during the period of time where the sun was setting and just after. I was able to capture a number of CGs. However, as time wore on, my shots, despite my constant attempts to adjust the focus, aperture, and exposure time, actually got worse!

Here are some shots in temporal order.

This one isn't really a "keeper", but to me illustrates the extreme difficulty shooting lightning when there is still substantial daylight. This was shot at the maximum "dark" settings for my D40: 200 ISO, f/22, -5.0 EV exposure compensation, and is only a 1 s exposure, and it still is nearly entirely overexposed. What's so telling about this image is that the CG in it (just right of center) was actually quite vivid IRL, but it is barely visible here.

This is probably one of the best five of the day in terms of overall quality of the image. It was still shot at 200 ISO, -5.0 EV exposure compensation, but it was now dark enough that I was able to drop the f-stop to 11 and use a 5 s exposure.

This was the last CG I got during the session, and probably the worst picture focus-wise, but one of the best in terms of what nature offered. I was very disappointed in this picture because I had seen over the last several successful shots (successful meaning there was a CG in it) that the focus was getting worse. Thus, with each successive burst of exposures I was shooting, I was fine tuning the focus ring to try to keep from losing it. Evidently I failed. This was shot at 200 ISO, -5.0 EV exposure compensation, f/11, and 8 s exposure. I had a couple of slightly better shots than this at f/9, but there was also a little more light, too.

Could this worsening of focus be due to changes in light or temperature as the sun went down? I didn't notice a huge temperature change during the course of shooting (only about 60 - 75 mins). The camera also was not wet despite the occasional moderate showers earlier on in the session.