ok so we are under a tornado warning and the skies are going crazy with lightning does anyone know if you can even capture lightning or even a tornado with a point and shoot if so how?
maybe I'm crazy for even wanting to take photos like this!
Like others have said, fireworks mode if you have it + a tripod or some sort of steady position (not handheld if possible). If you're able to do any sort of manual exposure settings then any extended shutter lengths plus low ISO may generate some results.
Otherwise, you'll have to rely a lot on luck. That's the nature of the subject. I have a lightning trigger hooked up to my DSLR and I went through over 300 exposures in the last storm and had probably less than 10 keepers.
@marubozo Okay, am going to sound dumb here but what is a "lightning trigger"? I have a Sony DSLR and would like to try more lightning shots but by the time I take the pic the lightning has come and gone.
@cathycope I'm not sure if there is a trigger compatible with sony or not, but basically it's this device that plugs into your remote shutter port and then affixes to the top of your camera. It has a super sensitive sensor that detects flashes of light and within a few milliseconds of seeing a flash it will activate your shutter, hopefully capturing the bolt of lightning.
This means you can stick to relatively short shutter speeds (under a second) rather than leaving the shutter open for 10-30 seconds at a time and just hope and pray a bolt of lightning falls within your frame during that time.
You can check out my project for a few lightning shots I got with it, and the trigger I specifically use is from http://www.aeophoto.com/
If you need any further convincing to be safe while attempting tornado shots, take a look at my album. Specifically April 1, 6-8, and 10. They are all aftermath photos of two of the four tornadoes that went through my county last night. (I had some blank days in my project over the last week, and used storm photos as fillers.) I didn't get any photos of the actual storm, I was too busy blatantly ignoring the speed limit trying to get home ahead of the storm. I took 80 photos today, and have covered less than half of the damage paths - you can't even get into one of the towns that took a direct hit yet, and there's two more damage paths I haven't even driven past yet.
Tornadoes are serious business. Unless you're a highly trained and properly equipped spotter/chaser (which by the sounds of it, you are not) and/or completely out of your gourd, do what the experts tell you and get your butt to shelter. No photo is worth risking getting a 2x4 driven clean through your chest.
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Otherwise, you'll have to rely a lot on luck. That's the nature of the subject. I have a lightning trigger hooked up to my DSLR and I went through over 300 exposures in the last storm and had probably less than 10 keepers.
This means you can stick to relatively short shutter speeds (under a second) rather than leaving the shutter open for 10-30 seconds at a time and just hope and pray a bolt of lightning falls within your frame during that time.
You can check out my project for a few lightning shots I got with it, and the trigger I specifically use is from http://www.aeophoto.com/
Tornadoes are serious business. Unless you're a highly trained and properly equipped spotter/chaser (which by the sounds of it, you are not) and/or completely out of your gourd, do what the experts tell you and get your butt to shelter. No photo is worth risking getting a 2x4 driven clean through your chest.