Photographing a storm

[RyanEG]

How would one go about photographing a lightning storm? Both day and night? We've had some pretty severe weather today with some gorgeous lightening strikes just thought I would ask.

 

[Roy G. Biv]

If its at night with no light, you can keep shooting at the black sky with 3-5 second shutter speeds at something like f22. Also there are products available like this.. Ebay

 

[ahuxman58]

Essentials: Tripod, Remote shutter release (cable release) lots of towels, cause your gonna get wet. I used wide angle lenses all storms are different as far as frequency of lightning strikes. that will also determine how fast or how slow your shutter should be. Try 3 second shutters to 5 second shutters at around F6.3 to F 8 smaller your aperture the more fine your lighting bolts will be larger aperture the larger your bolts will be .Continious shutter is very helpful so have a big card. I use this weather program to get my storm info its a nice site for tracking storms as it tracks and labels lightning strikes and strenghts of storms.:

http://www.wunderground.com/

click on nexrad radar
find a white or yellow cross nearest your location
scroll down to radar contols and activate rain (show) and lightning(show). I activate 10 storms but you can activate 5 ,10 or all. Save settings and thats about as good as your gonna get as far as tracking lightning storms

 

[TitusvileSurfer]

If you are shooting lightning, the exposures can be a long as you want. I like to sit with a tripod and cable release. Simply holding down the button take the picture...I count to 10 and if there isn't any lightning I start over. As soon as the lightning strikes, your Aperture and ISO will determine how blinding-bright the lightning will be. Simply release the shutter after the strike.

I start a new frame after 10 seconds or so to combat long-exposure interference. If you have hot pixels, they will rear their ugly head in a 15+second exposure!

 

[dustinP]

set the camera in bulb mode, set the aperature to f/8-f/12 and if you dont have a shutter release have the internal timer take a picture every five seconds or so

 

[IPT]

not sure why you are all shooting so wide open. Using a smaller aperature will allow a much longer exposure time and better chance of catching a strike. I have evn used a polarizer ti hold back light or a ND 3 or 4 stop (non graduated) filter to get longer exposures. If you really want to get into it I think there is actually a sensor you can buy that will trigger the shutter by the strike. I don't think it's cheep though!