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Night Time Lightning Photography
Use a tripod.
Connect a cable shutter release or set the remote for taking the shots.
Lock focus at infinity.
Set the shutter speed to bulb 'B' (the shutter will stay open for as long as you hold it open). If you don't have this option, set the exposure time to the longest possible - realistically you need 10 to 30 seconds
Set the aperture (F-stop) to between F4 and F8. I recommend nothing higher than F8 unless you want many bolts of lightning to occur in the one photo.
Frame the picture where the most lightning is occurring, or where the most spectacular clouds are.
Observe the lightning for a short while before taking a picture. You will notice that some cloud to ground (CG) lightning strikes very fast (in a fraction of a second it has flashed and gone). Other CG bolts strobe or pulse for anything up to 2 seconds. Sheet lightning (anvil crawlers) sometimes lasts up to a second or more as it spreads across the sky. If the storm is close to you and/or you can see it growing or moving, then exposure times should be at most 15 seconds, or else the cloud will blur (especially if more than one lightning bolt occurs during the exposure). If the storm is a fair way away, you are only framing the storm base, or you cannot see it developing or moving, then exposures can be anything you like! I recommend between 20 seconds and 2 minutes. You can have longer exposure times for higher F stops.
Fast lightning:
- Press the cable/remote to open the shutter.
- Wait for the lightning (or multiple lightning) to occur within the frame of your shot.
- Release the shutter.
For the longer lasting lightning:
- You can do the same as above, or
- Wait for the lightning to occur.
- Press the cable/remote to open the shutter as soon as you see the flash.
- Release the shutter after a number of seconds (up to you).
Late Afternoon or Early Morning (low daylight) Lightning Photography
Set your camera on a tripod.
Connect a cable shutter release or set the remote for taking the shots.
Set focus to infinity.
Set the shutter speed to 'B' if you want to control the length of the exposure, otherwise I recommend setting the speed to aperture priority setting if you have this.
Set the aperture (F-stop) higher (experiment with F5.6 - F16) than for night shots - it will give you more exposure time, and more chance of capturing the lightning.
Frame the picture where the most lightning is occurring, or where the most spectacular clouds are.
Either wait for the lightning to occur then press the cable/remote to open the shutter, or press the cable/remote and hope that lighting occurs reasonably quickly.
If you have set the speed to automatic then that's it, otherwise, release the shutter after your estimated exposure time.
Day Time Lightning Photography
There isn't much to tell you here, you have to react quickly and be pointing the camera in the right direction. Observe the lightning before you attempt any shots - if all the bolts are very fast and do not strobe, then you will not be able to react fast enough.
Use a normal landscape dial setting, or set the aperture and the exposure time to what you prefer, as you would with any other day time photograph.
Lock focus at infinity - you do not want the camera searching for focus before actually taking the picture
Aim.
Wait for the lightning!! If you react quickly enough when you see the bolt, you may capture it.
http://www.lightningphotography.com/tips.html
http://www.weatherscapes.com/techniques.php?cat=lightning&page=lightning
http://www.lightningtrigger.com/PhotoTips6/PhotoTips6.htm
Know the other dangers - there are many people with bad intentions out there in the dark, as well as critters & crawlers. Keep an eye on your surroundings, stay away from areas close to roads or other unsafe places, and take a cell-phone with you if you go away far. When trouble comes - leave.
Know the weather danger - don't get struck by lightning, or otherwise getting in trouble. A good advice is to photograph lightning outside rain, while the storm is somewhat distant. It is unwise to go in the open field to photograph close lightning - you can easily get surprised by a thunderstorm, and this could get you into a lot of trouble. Unless you are experienced, don't take any risks!
Check the lens cap - in most cases you won't forget this, since you'll probably be using an SLR camera, but make sure Mr. Murphy doesn't catch you on this one.
Don't photograph through a window since it will probably show on the photo, especially when the window is wet by rain. If you DO photograph behind a window make sure the window is very clean and dry, and make sure that when lightning strikes, the interior of where you are standing is not reflecting its light by the glass into your lens. Cover up the camera, and put the lens as close as possible behind the glass.
Cardboard as shutter. You may want to use this as an additional shutter: put the cardboard in front of the lens, open the shutter, and remove the cardboard. When you are done, put the cardboard in front of the lens again, and then close the shutter. Don't touch the camera with the board. This technique will eliminate several problems related to camera shake. Beware that no lights are shining on the cardboard from behind - the lens will catch this. The cardboard also comes in handy when you want to photograph multiple lightning discharges on one frame, to prevent overexposure between the lightning.
Stay dry. If possible, operate from under a roof or something with the camera at the edge, not letting your camera get wet by rain. Check from time to time whether the lens is clean and dry: do this with your head outside the camera's view if the shutter is open! If lightning were to occur just then while you put your smiling face in front of the lens, the effect will be very weird indeed!
Pay attention to composition. You might want to mount the camera on the tripod in such a way that just a bit of horizon, a tree, rock formation or something is visible, with the camera ofcourse pointing in the direction where most discharges occur. This way the size of the photographed discharge can easily be estimated by observing the photo, and it's more natural.
Aim at potential lightning targets. When you use two or more cameras, you might want to mount a telephoto lens on the second camera and point this one portrait-style to a target: a large tree, a chimney or a radio transmitting tower - anything which has a fair chance to be hit by lightning. You may be lucky.
Listen to the sferics. Sferics are the crackle heard on radio when there is a storm around. It is the EMP (electromagnetic pulse) which is transmitted broadband by a lightning discharge. Use a SW/MW radio to listen real time to the lightning discharges this way, this can be very informative after some practice! Adjust the band (short wave (SW) or mid wave (MW), it doesn't matter much in this case which band to use) so that the radio is not receiving any signal, just noise. When lightning strikes somewhere within, say, a 100 mile radius (depending on atmospheric RF transmittance conditions), you will hear a characteristic crackle. This crackle itself can tell you a lot more about the lightning activity:
Relatively long lasting crackle, with several 'pops' in it: you'll know the lightning is probably extensive or a multistroked CG, thus the thunderstorms will probably be well electrified, building enough charge separation for multistroked lightning. A longer lasting crackle without that much pops in it usually indicates a long CC discharge (cloud to cloud) or an IC (intracloud) discharge
Just one pop: lightning is not a very powerful discharge, thus thunderstorms may not be very active
Frequency of subsequent crackles: this is a direct measure for the intensity of thunderstorms
Loudness of crackles: Tells you something about the distance of the lightning discharge, to your location. Loud crackle on the radio will usually be accompanied by visible lightning, whether it be visible as heat lightning (sky lighting up), sheet lightning (cloud lighting up) or a visible lightning channel
Check and double-check camera settings frequently. With each photo you make, check the following items:
focus at infinity (sometimes you accidentally alter this without noticing)
aperture still set correctly
camera lens still clean and dry
proper composition
lightning still appearing in the frame (the storm usually moves)
).
