The secret to shooting great lightning

[Keith Wilson]

I wish I would have found this thread sooner, as it would have saved me some growing pains with the learning process with my T3i.
I have had many of the same problems discussed here, and found many of the same solutions. Right off the bat, I learned the hard way about the focus change issues. Check frequently!!!
I have recently started shooting lightning exclusively in RAW and found that my image quality and post-processing options are greatly improved, even using only DPP.

F-stop/ISO is something that I am still playing with, though I try to keep the ISO in the 100/200/400 range depending on the distance of the target and ambient light present. I hate noise/hot pixels, but many of the storms that I get an opportunity to shoot at night here are 30-50+ miles away (and even that isn't very often), hence the 400 ISO I sometimes find myself using.

I live in the Florida Panhandle, so mosquitoes are a big problem here as well. I don't like using the oily sprays since it inevitably ends up on your hands and transfers to your camera and accessories. The dry sprays are better. Also, try the Thermacell as I have found that they work very good as long as the wind isn't too high.

What I have read about the F-stop/ISO balance here seems to imply that I can keep my ISO at 100/200 more often as long as I bump the F-stop up to 8-10-12 range (depending on conditions, of course).

White balance is something that I find myself fixing a lot while processing. Photos sometimes come out with a strong orange/yellow tint, especially with the longer distances. Any suggestions here?

 

[STexan]

I've found that tungsten white balance (I think tungsten) keeps the final image as close to reality as possible. But I will always shoot raw regardless and can change later if it produces a better result. Having a zoomable "live view" is almost a must to nail the focus while on manual focus. But every now and then, stop to check a recent exposure to insure you haven't inadvertently moved the focus ring ever so slightly. It happens and it's extremely disappointing to find the last 20 exposures slightly OOF. At lightning distances the tiniest focus ring change can make a huge difference in the overall image quality.

At some point you will find that you have to make a decision to set for a close strike (smaller f-stop) and hope for it or set for distant strikes and get those in reasonable exposure. Getting a close strike at an exposure that was yielding good distant strike exposures will most often end up all blown out in the brightest areas.

 

[Warren Faidley]

I've shot a few lightning pictures. Here is what I suggest. Always manual focus. Setting on infinity does not always work. There is a slight offset with most lenses to account for heat expansion so the infinity mark is not always infinity. Pick a distant, fixed bright pin point of light and carefully focus until the light is sharp. If there is no light, you will have to make a good guess or focus on a fixed object with a good edge between flashes. I never shoot any lightning over (stops) f5.6 unless there is a lot of daylight to account for. The problem with f8 and higher (stops) is that the lightning becomes less defined and looks "skinny." You also need a tripod and a remote shutter release to limit camera shake. I also suggest using "mirror up" for long exposures. I never shoot over 100 ISO because I'm looking for long exposures. Again, this varies if you are trying to capture daylight lightning. Lenses are also important as others have noted. Any imperfections really show up with long exposures. I might also suggest experimenting with non-lightning night time shots so you are ready for the good stuff. W.

 

[Hannah.Taylor]

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?.

On your lens there is a little window with the lowest number of zoom and the highest number of zoom. To the right of the highest number should be a sideways number 8. That is the numerical sign for infinity. When the white indicator mark is on that sideway number 8 your lens is focused to infinity. In the dark it can be done by turning the focus ring on your lens all the way to the right. Or use the light from your cell phone to make sure its on infinity.

 

[John Gnuechtel]

I have a couple rules of thumb I use that might help folks new to lightning shooting. First off, I like to go ISO100 to avoid noise. Tripod and remote trigger are required, as has been noted many times. Then I go with an F-stop that allows me to shoot exposures in the neighborhood of 2-3 seconds. This doesn't matter as much at night, when I set it to bulb and just leave the shutter open until I get something. For all-important focus, I set the camera to single-point auto-focus, get the zoom where I want it, and point it at a distant street lamp until I can get auto-focus to see it by pressing the trigger halfway. Then I switch auto-focus off, take a shot of the same street lamp, and check the results in playback on the back of the camera, using the camera's playback to zoom way in to make sure it's crisp. It may sound tedious, but it only takes about 30 seconds once you get used to the process.

 

[Keith Wilson]

Thanks for the tips STexan, Warren, Hannah, and John. Some of it I already do, but wasn't aware of the "Tungsten" trick. I usually try AF to get it close on the focus, then turn it off and fine tune from there. A couple of places that I shoot have no lights at all, and that has proven to be a challenge since I don't have the best night vision.
I do generally try to set up for closer strikes unless I know the distance of the storms make it very unlikely.
Thanks again!