Shooting lightning - a quick and dirty tutorial
Because you asked...
(and I like to talk about these things... :)
There are probably more and better documented ways to capture lightning or fireworks shows at night, but this is what I've found, though several hundred frames of trial-and-error, works best for me.
First and most important rule of photographing lightning: Be Safe!
I don’t think this can be overstated. It’s easy to get caught up in storm-watching and lose track of what’s going on around you. Shoot from the cover of porches, cars, or other covered and grounded structures. Shoot an open field or a valley from a distance with a clear sky overhead and safe shelter nearby. Lightning always takes the quickest path to the ground and will jump from one ungrounded object to the next in order to reach it.
That said, trying to capture lightning or fireworks is one of the few times that I’d advocate that the camera makes the difference. That, or having lightning-fast reflexes. (intentional pun is intentional)
This isn’t to say that you need a thousand dollar setup to get the job done. But what you do need is a camera with a full manual mode; that is, one where you can control the aperture (F-stop), film speed, and length of exposure. Any SLR/DSLR will do the job. Some of the newer point-and-shoots also have a built-in ‘fireworks’ mode that will essentially use the same settings. I don’t have one handy to test with, so assume all references are to an SLR/DSLR camera body.
The other piece of equipment you’ll need, but isn’t mandatory, is a tripod. You can get away with not using one if you have some place to rest the camera and keep it steady, while still keeping it aimed at the horizon. Any basic tripod will do. The one I use is very bare-bones, has short legs (I often put it on a patio table to get extra height), no fancy gimbal head, and goes for about $40 at MEC (or did when I bought it).
And of course you need a storm.
Or a fireworks show. Fireworks displays make a good practice venue and the principle is the same. Essentially, you want a lengthy shot, while balancing the amount of light you are letting in to your photo sensor.
I’ve found the following combination works best for most night storms around here:
f/8, 18mm, ISO-800, 8 seconds
(YMMV, depending on ambient lighting, lightning/fireworks frequency, etc. - try different combinations to see what works best in a given situation) It’s also easy to remember with all those 8s.
Why? (including a quick reference included for those of you who, like me, didn’t bother to read the manual that came with the camera and now can’t find it):
f/8 - F-stop, or focal point. It’s the ratio of the lens's focal length to the diameter of the entrance pupil, and also used to note the ‘speed’ of the lens. Basically, think of it as how much light is being let through the lens at its sweet spot. (for a more thorough explanation, including how it affects the depth of field, click on to the Wikipedia article). The lower the F-stop, the more light is going through; the higher the number… less light. Also note that lower numbers give you a more blurry background/distance shot. Higher numbers… well, you get the picture.
f/8 is about middle-of-the-road for most lenses - too low and you let in too much light and blow out the image. Too high a number and not enough light gets through unless you have a series of bright strikes. With a higher number, such as f/11, you also cut out most of the ambient light that is useful to give the shot a sense of context (making it look like a random lightning bolt/fireworks, instead of a lighshow over a city-scape or lake.)
Also, the F-stop varies from lens to lens. I use an 18-200mm lens, locked at 18mm to give me the widest view of the sky. Which brings us to…
18mm - the distance from the lens to the photo sensor/film The lower the number, the smaller the amount of magnification/higher the number, more magnification (this is the zoom or telephoto end of the lens’ range). There’s no rule saying you can’t go for a shorter focal length - this will give you a larger view of the sky and makes capturing a very fast moving storm easier. This is the average minimum for a basic ‘kit lens’ (the low-end lens that usually comes come a camera body package). If your camera only has one built-in lens, when it’s fully retracted, that would be your shortest focal length. Use the shortest (and smallest number of mm’s) available to you. You want to get as much of the sky in the frame as possible to increase your chances of getting that shot.
ISO-800 - Film speed and sensitivity. Lower numbers mean slower film speed, good for outdoors in bright sunlight, or bold and bright colors. Higher numbers are good to action shots, low light, and things that move very fast. Keep in mind that the higher the ISO you use, the more ‘noise’ you’ll see in your shots. (think of ‘noise’ as visual static in your image - it’s caused by light bouncing off random surfaces and getting picked up by the camera sensor) If you’re shooting fireworks in a crowded venue with a lot of streetlight, for example, you might want to use ISO-400 for your film speed (or even as low as ISO-200). We have one streetlight behind our back yard, so as long as I keep my lens pointed away from that general direction, I don’t have too many issues with background noise.
ISO-800 works well because while your subject is blindingly bright, it’s also moving very fast, even though it doesn’t seem like it. That’s because the human brain/retina combination is slower to process the image than your average camera. By the time you register a lightning strike, it’s already been and gone. You need a film sensitivity that is capable of recording very fast moving objects
8 seconds - This is my length of exposure, or shutter speed. It’s also key to picking up lightning strikes or the full firework blossom; this is how you get around not having super powers to capture the shot.
It also might seem counterintuitive - if you were to use a long exposure like this in daylight, all you’d get is a washed out image, right? What using a longer exposure like this does is give you a window in which to capture the shot because by the time you see the strike and your finger presses the shutter release, the lightning has already struck. With fireworks, you can adjust your exposure length so that you release the shutter when you hear/see the shell launch, and the shot ends once the shell has exploded.
With lightning, it’s a little more tricky. I’m fortunate here that I have a lot of wide-open sky to see the storm building. And not all storms are the same. What I find is that, like thunder, lightning also tends to roll across the sky before it strikes the ground. When the first flashes light up the cloud, release the shutter, and cross your fingers that it strikes somewhere in that 8-second window in front of your camera.
Now, 8 seconds isn’t an exact requirement - it’s just a nice length of time that allows the camera to record the image without too much delay while it writes the file back to the memory card. You don’t have to worry about that restriction with a film camera, but you do have to wait for the film to advance. Again, play around with the length of exposure, depending on your ambient light, type of lightning, etc. (and also why a tripod or other method of stabilization is important).
So what else do you need to know?
- Set your camera up in a spot that’s a) safe!, and b) has a good, unobstructed view of the sky. Aim for the horizon to add some visual interest and context to your shot.
- Make sure to switch to manual focus. Most DSLR will just sit there and blink stupidly at you while they try to focus, even if everything else is set to manual. Set your focus ring to ‘infinity’, ‘landscape’, or whatever the farthest point you can see clearly is.
- Hold down the shutter release button part-way. You’ll get less shake to your image and a quicker reaction time. If you have a cable shutter release, so much the better (I don’t. I just try not to drink too much coffee if I think I might have a chance at shooting a storm).
- Once you have your camera mounted and set up, you don’t need to keep your eye to the viewfinder. Just keep your body more or less behind the lens so you have a point of reference as to which direction the camera is pointing.
- Make sure you have plenty of film/space on your memory card. On average, I get about 8-10 black or too dark shots for every one clear lightning shot. You don’t want to miss anything because you’re trying to free up space in a pinch.
- Have patience! Not all storms produce the kind of lightning that photographs well, or they move too fast to catch.
Good luck!
Questions? (Or, "Crap, Zip, that makes no sense at all... please explain?")
Also posted at DW, where
people have commented. Comments welcome here or there.
(and I like to talk about these things... :)
There are probably more and better documented ways to capture lightning or fireworks shows at night, but this is what I've found, though several hundred frames of trial-and-error, works best for me.
First and most important rule of photographing lightning: Be Safe!
I don’t think this can be overstated. It’s easy to get caught up in storm-watching and lose track of what’s going on around you. Shoot from the cover of porches, cars, or other covered and grounded structures. Shoot an open field or a valley from a distance with a clear sky overhead and safe shelter nearby. Lightning always takes the quickest path to the ground and will jump from one ungrounded object to the next in order to reach it.
That said, trying to capture lightning or fireworks is one of the few times that I’d advocate that the camera makes the difference. That, or having lightning-fast reflexes. (intentional pun is intentional)
This isn’t to say that you need a thousand dollar setup to get the job done. But what you do need is a camera with a full manual mode; that is, one where you can control the aperture (F-stop), film speed, and length of exposure. Any SLR/DSLR will do the job. Some of the newer point-and-shoots also have a built-in ‘fireworks’ mode that will essentially use the same settings. I don’t have one handy to test with, so assume all references are to an SLR/DSLR camera body.
The other piece of equipment you’ll need, but isn’t mandatory, is a tripod. You can get away with not using one if you have some place to rest the camera and keep it steady, while still keeping it aimed at the horizon. Any basic tripod will do. The one I use is very bare-bones, has short legs (I often put it on a patio table to get extra height), no fancy gimbal head, and goes for about $40 at MEC (or did when I bought it).
And of course you need a storm.
Or a fireworks show. Fireworks displays make a good practice venue and the principle is the same. Essentially, you want a lengthy shot, while balancing the amount of light you are letting in to your photo sensor.
I’ve found the following combination works best for most night storms around here:
f/8, 18mm, ISO-800, 8 seconds
(YMMV, depending on ambient lighting, lightning/fireworks frequency, etc. - try different combinations to see what works best in a given situation) It’s also easy to remember with all those 8s.
Why? (including a quick reference included for those of you who, like me, didn’t bother to read the manual that came with the camera and now can’t find it):
f/8 - F-stop, or focal point. It’s the ratio of the lens's focal length to the diameter of the entrance pupil, and also used to note the ‘speed’ of the lens. Basically, think of it as how much light is being let through the lens at its sweet spot. (for a more thorough explanation, including how it affects the depth of field, click on to the Wikipedia article). The lower the F-stop, the more light is going through; the higher the number… less light. Also note that lower numbers give you a more blurry background/distance shot. Higher numbers… well, you get the picture.
f/8 is about middle-of-the-road for most lenses - too low and you let in too much light and blow out the image. Too high a number and not enough light gets through unless you have a series of bright strikes. With a higher number, such as f/11, you also cut out most of the ambient light that is useful to give the shot a sense of context (making it look like a random lightning bolt/fireworks, instead of a lighshow over a city-scape or lake.)
Also, the F-stop varies from lens to lens. I use an 18-200mm lens, locked at 18mm to give me the widest view of the sky. Which brings us to…
18mm - the distance from the lens to the photo sensor/film The lower the number, the smaller the amount of magnification/higher the number, more magnification (this is the zoom or telephoto end of the lens’ range). There’s no rule saying you can’t go for a shorter focal length - this will give you a larger view of the sky and makes capturing a very fast moving storm easier. This is the average minimum for a basic ‘kit lens’ (the low-end lens that usually comes come a camera body package). If your camera only has one built-in lens, when it’s fully retracted, that would be your shortest focal length. Use the shortest (and smallest number of mm’s) available to you. You want to get as much of the sky in the frame as possible to increase your chances of getting that shot.
ISO-800 - Film speed and sensitivity. Lower numbers mean slower film speed, good for outdoors in bright sunlight, or bold and bright colors. Higher numbers are good to action shots, low light, and things that move very fast. Keep in mind that the higher the ISO you use, the more ‘noise’ you’ll see in your shots. (think of ‘noise’ as visual static in your image - it’s caused by light bouncing off random surfaces and getting picked up by the camera sensor) If you’re shooting fireworks in a crowded venue with a lot of streetlight, for example, you might want to use ISO-400 for your film speed (or even as low as ISO-200). We have one streetlight behind our back yard, so as long as I keep my lens pointed away from that general direction, I don’t have too many issues with background noise.
ISO-800 works well because while your subject is blindingly bright, it’s also moving very fast, even though it doesn’t seem like it. That’s because the human brain/retina combination is slower to process the image than your average camera. By the time you register a lightning strike, it’s already been and gone. You need a film sensitivity that is capable of recording very fast moving objects
8 seconds - This is my length of exposure, or shutter speed. It’s also key to picking up lightning strikes or the full firework blossom; this is how you get around not having super powers to capture the shot.
It also might seem counterintuitive - if you were to use a long exposure like this in daylight, all you’d get is a washed out image, right? What using a longer exposure like this does is give you a window in which to capture the shot because by the time you see the strike and your finger presses the shutter release, the lightning has already struck. With fireworks, you can adjust your exposure length so that you release the shutter when you hear/see the shell launch, and the shot ends once the shell has exploded.
With lightning, it’s a little more tricky. I’m fortunate here that I have a lot of wide-open sky to see the storm building. And not all storms are the same. What I find is that, like thunder, lightning also tends to roll across the sky before it strikes the ground. When the first flashes light up the cloud, release the shutter, and cross your fingers that it strikes somewhere in that 8-second window in front of your camera.
Now, 8 seconds isn’t an exact requirement - it’s just a nice length of time that allows the camera to record the image without too much delay while it writes the file back to the memory card. You don’t have to worry about that restriction with a film camera, but you do have to wait for the film to advance. Again, play around with the length of exposure, depending on your ambient light, type of lightning, etc. (and also why a tripod or other method of stabilization is important).
So what else do you need to know?
- Set your camera up in a spot that’s a) safe!, and b) has a good, unobstructed view of the sky. Aim for the horizon to add some visual interest and context to your shot.
- Make sure to switch to manual focus. Most DSLR will just sit there and blink stupidly at you while they try to focus, even if everything else is set to manual. Set your focus ring to ‘infinity’, ‘landscape’, or whatever the farthest point you can see clearly is.
- Hold down the shutter release button part-way. You’ll get less shake to your image and a quicker reaction time. If you have a cable shutter release, so much the better (I don’t. I just try not to drink too much coffee if I think I might have a chance at shooting a storm).
- Once you have your camera mounted and set up, you don’t need to keep your eye to the viewfinder. Just keep your body more or less behind the lens so you have a point of reference as to which direction the camera is pointing.
- Make sure you have plenty of film/space on your memory card. On average, I get about 8-10 black or too dark shots for every one clear lightning shot. You don’t want to miss anything because you’re trying to free up space in a pinch.
- Have patience! Not all storms produce the kind of lightning that photographs well, or they move too fast to catch.
Good luck!
Questions? (Or, "Crap, Zip, that makes no sense at all... please explain?")
Also posted at DW, where
people have commented. Comments welcome here or there.