Tiny storm with lightning

[Doug Raflik]

Canon D60.

For that shot I used my Tamron 24 to 70mm lens.

 

[Joey Ketcham]

Ahh, I have the Canon Digital Rebel... haven't ever seen or used the D60 so not sure how they compare against each other. It takes very awesome pictures though!

What settings do you typically use for lightning photography?

 

[Doug Raflik]

Always ISO 100. Around 30 seconds, and adjust the f/ stop to the distance of the lightning. Over 2 miles... f/4ish area, and as it gets closer I close down the apeture. Now this is a generalization, and it can vary slightly with different conditions.

 

[Joey Ketcham]

Hopefully this year I can do more lightning photography. I did some last year, nothing impressive...

 

[Khristian Snyder]

I've just got into lightning photography. A small thunderstorm woke me up at 4 one morning. I usualy like to film the storms with my videocamera and then grab the lightning frames, but my camera had no more tape left and no battery. I grabed my new Nikon 8800 and set it up on a tripod out my bedroom window. I had no idea what to do, for i had just recieved the camera and i have never had a camera with manual settings. I decided to do a 30 second exposure at any f stop. I did not know what and f-stop was so i just put anything, which happend to be 5.6. I took a dozen pictures and only one turned out:

 

[Doug Raflik]

Nothing wrong with that picture.

 

[Andy Wehrle]

Hey Doug, I just saw your picture on the WFO-MKX website. http://www.crh.noaa.gov/mkx/document/document.php

It says it was taken on June 23, the tornado outbreak day. I remember the supercell that passed my house had a very intense lightning show immediately following the passage of the (at the time nonrotating) wall cloud. The tower cam from one of the Madison TV stations also showed this.

 

[Doug Raflik]

Andy. This isnt that storm. The first, tornadic storm went through. Then the next large storm went through. Then this little guy tried to go, but never got any bigger than this.

Doug

 

[Greg Campbell]

Doug, I was under the impression that DSLR class cameras didn't suffer from "hot" or "stuck" pixels. I'd expect a little thermal noise, sure, but not the artificial stars that infest your shots.

My P/S digicam produces dozens of red and green snowflakes when shooting anything longer than a few seconds. DSLR owners in other forums have assured me that their new toy is immune to the problem.

The big question I have regards sensor degredation: Has your D60 always had hot pixels, or is it a worsening problem? Also,at what ISO/temperature/shutter-speed combination does the problem start to get ugly?

Thanks

-Greg (Still stuck in the photochemical era, but a potential DSLR buyer.)

 

[Glenn Rivers]

Tiny Storm Picture

I noticed something odd about the far edge of the cloud deck above and just to the left of the left edge of the large patch of trees...........there are two or three identical stripes at the bottom of cloud deck. Even subtle vertical elements near the bottom of the cloud deck are repeated perfectly at least twice. Is this the result of getting rid of the power lines?

 

[Doug Raflik]

Yea it is. I could have done better, but I know its not a money shot so what the heck.