Amatuer needs more help! I want to photograph lightning which has become an obsession. I tried using a wide angle lens set to manual with a 30 second shutter speed at f 29 with a 200 ISO setting . The lightning is blurred and I can't seem to get a good clear picture. Does anyone have suggestions for getting good focused lightning shots?
If you're getting motion blurring with long exposures, your tripod probably isn't sturdy/planted/weighted enough. If it's more like everything is just very slightly out-of-focus, you might just be seeing diffraction blurring (which will certainly be in effect at an aperture as tiny as f/29). In general, if you want long exposures, you'll get better quality with a larger aperture and ND filters, than by going to tiny apertures.
Can you list what equipment you're using? Or maybe post a pic of the blurring? That would help decipher the actual cause.
Im a storm chaser and frequently shoot lightning. (see my 'gallery' for an example)
Dont use f/29--use your sharpest aperature for the lens (often f/9).
Are you talking about daylight or nightime photography? 30 seconds sounds like night, even at f/29; if so a trigger wont buy you much, just use a long enough exposure as you have. I personally dont feel the need for a trigger, but i have pretty fast reflexes! A remote--either wired or wireless--is absolutely critical however.
Lightning Triggers work best with daytime lightning.
I agree that a larger aperture, rock solid tripod, remote (or self timer) and mirror lockup will all combine to give you sharper exposures.
Attached is the best picture I took. I used a nikon d5000 with a 18-55 wide angle lens on a tripod. I used a 30 second shutter speed at 200 ISO and shot at f22. I manually pressed the shutter myself.
Richard, perhaps you may want to check-out this site: http://www.lightninglady.com/. She has some very dramatic shots of lightening and is a wealth of knowledge on shooting these types of shots. I've written to her with questions and she was very responsive.
Well, in the shot you posted the focus is too close, its on the trees and not on infinity. Use manual focus to focus on a bright object on the horizon/sky, focus on infinity using the lens ring, or do whatever it takes to focus on the sky and not the trees! There also may be some slight camera shake here--use a rock solid tripod and remote trigger, and you should get good results
Posted by Brian Jackson on April 8, 2010 at 12:39 PM
Looks like Stan has given you great advice. I'd echo pretty much the exact same things. Setup at night, focus on something far away such as a bright light for your infinity focus, setup around f/8 or so and 30 or so seconds. I've had excellent results with this setup.
Posted by David Bostedo on April 8, 2010 at 12:41 PM
Well if the lightning is close enough, I'm not sure you want to focus at infinity. I'm also not sure I've seen pictures of lightning that weren't focused at infinity. It does look like the focus was much too close in your shot here though Richard. Do you know where the lightning strike was in this case? Was it a long way away (close to or behind the faint BG trees at the bottom)?
Posted by Greg Campbell on April 9, 2010 at 12:44 AM
Think of lightning as a flash unit. Aperture and ISO will determine how bright the lightning appears in the image. In general, f/5.6~f/8 @ ISO 100 will be close enough to record reasonable detail without too much danger of massive blow out. That said, you'll need to tune the aperture to match the lightning's distance and inherent brightness. F/29 will make most lightning VERY anemic, but would be correct if the neighbor's tree suddenly happened to catch fire! Likewise, f2.0 might be needed for distant storms shot in dusty conditions.
Focusing is the next be fight. I'll leave the specifics up to you. Keep in mind that most AF systems go are less than useless at night. Focus manually or move the camera to a bright, distant object and let the AF do its thing. Then turn off AF, and recompose the scene. Or just shoot an old MF film camera, or use MF lenses on your digicam.
Hopefully, the lightning is now sharp and about the right brightness. Adjust your shutter time to record clouds, mountains, cityscapes, etc. If it's bright enough for the camera to meter, shoot in aperture priority and let the camera deal with shutter speed. This can work very well, as seen here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/19806236@N00/4154307225/in/set-72157622800084513/ If not, you'll need to guess (film) or chimp the histogram to determine proper exposure.
As mentioned, use a sturdy tripod and preferably a cable release (or whatever they call the digital equivalent. When shooting twilight or early evening shots, you can set the shutter mode to full auto and machine-gun away with short exposures until you get lucky. After dark, it's often more fun to try to anticipate the lightning. After observing a while, you'll notice semi-regular patterns and will soon 'sense' when a bolt is due.
IMO lightning triggers are of limited use. If you MUST catch a daylight shot, they are great. For all other L photography, they aren't worth the hassle and expense. The main technical issue is the latency between sensing the lightning and getting the shutter open. Most often the camera misses the delicate, detailed branches and leaders and manages to capture only the main return stroke. This makes for 'pencil' lightning which, while better than no lightning at all, is also far less than ideal.
Posted by Rakesh Malik on April 13, 2010 at 3:35 PM
"Well if the lightning is close enough, I'm not sure you want to focus at infinity."
If it's close enough that the lighting bolts aren't sharp at infinity focus, you shouldn't be there. For most lenses, infinity isn't really that far away, and in some wide angles it's not even 50 feet. So if at any time you're shooting lighting and finding that it's out of focus at infinity, find somewhere safe to wait out the storm -- preferably inside a metal object and without the lighting rod... er, tripod.
I usually setup the lens at F8 or F11 for sharpness, focus at infinity and ISO400, then I start with 30 second exposures and change that depending on the light I have. The best tool for me is a remote with intervalometer. I bought a cheap one from ebay for my camera. I can program the remote to take 30'' exposures one after the other. Thus the camera is "hunting" for lightning.
Discussion
17 repliesAmatuer needs more help! I want to photograph lightning which has become an obsession. I tried using a wide angle lens set to manual with a 30 second shutter speed at f 29 with a 200 ISO setting . The lightning is blurred and I can't seem to get a good clear picture. Does anyone have suggestions for getting good focused lightning shots?
Can you list what equipment you're using? Or maybe post a pic of the blurring? That would help decipher the actual cause.
What's a lightening trigger and how do you get one?
http://www.naturephotographers.net/imagecritique/bbs.cgi?a=vm&mr=7734&CGISESSID=03dc82e5c9891a816a8b7b22a3f18c13&u=28199
Dont use f/29--use your sharpest aperature for the lens (often f/9).
Are you talking about daylight or nightime photography? 30 seconds sounds like night, even at f/29; if so a trigger wont buy you much, just use a long enough exposure as you have. I personally dont feel the need for a trigger, but i have pretty fast reflexes! A remote--either wired or wireless--is absolutely critical however.
Lightning fast, eh, Stan?
--P
I agree that a larger aperture, rock solid tripod, remote (or self timer) and mirror lockup will all combine to give you sharper exposures.
Hopefully this will help - please let me know.
Greg
Nevada
Focusing is the next be fight. I'll leave the specifics up to you. Keep in mind that most AF systems go are less than useless at night. Focus manually or move the camera to a bright, distant object and let the AF do its thing. Then turn off AF, and recompose the scene. Or just shoot an old MF film camera, or use MF lenses on your digicam.
Hopefully, the lightning is now sharp and about the right brightness. Adjust your shutter time to record clouds, mountains, cityscapes, etc. If it's bright enough for the camera to meter, shoot in aperture priority and let the camera deal with shutter speed. This can work very well, as seen here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/19806236@N00/4154307225/in/set-72157622800084513/ If not, you'll need to guess (film) or chimp the histogram to determine proper exposure.
As mentioned, use a sturdy tripod and preferably a cable release (or whatever they call the digital equivalent. When shooting twilight or early evening shots, you can set the shutter mode to full auto and machine-gun away with short exposures until you get lucky. After dark, it's often more fun to try to anticipate the lightning. After observing a while, you'll notice semi-regular patterns and will soon 'sense' when a bolt is due.
IMO lightning triggers are of limited use. If you MUST catch a daylight shot, they are great. For all other L photography, they aren't worth the hassle and expense. The main technical issue is the latency between sensing the lightning and getting the shutter open. Most often the camera misses the delicate, detailed branches and leaders and manages to capture only the main return stroke. This makes for 'pencil' lightning which, while better than no lightning at all, is also far less than ideal.
If it's close enough that the lighting bolts aren't sharp at infinity focus, you shouldn't be there. For most lenses, infinity isn't really that far away, and in some wide angles it's not even 50 feet. So if at any time you're shooting lighting and finding that it's out of focus at infinity, find somewhere safe to wait out the storm -- preferably inside a metal object and without the lighting rod... er, tripod.
Good point Rakesh - I was thinking in general terms about any subject, and not really thinking about safety.
Any luck, Richard?