There isn't a lot I feel I can offer tutorials on, as I am still quite the amateur. But shooting lightning is something I love and - in the rare instance that I have an opportunity - seem to be pretty good at. I would be remiss if I didn't credit my husband with teaching me the basics of how to catch it years ago. Since I had someone kind enough to show me, I'll attempt to "show" you!
The first trick to catching lightning is having a camera with good manual settings that will allow you to either set up to a 30" exposure time and/or, preferably, has a "bulb" setting.
The next trick is having a remote shutter.
Finally, a good tripod (although my husband and I took a fantastic lightning shot once just setting the camera on top of my car, so that's why I list this last). :o)
The following settings are recommended to start with, and then you can tweak until you get the effect you desire:
Shutter Speed: Bulb. Start the exposure when the sky is completely dark and stop it IMMEDIATELY after a bolt has struck. If the bolt strikes outside the frame, start over because the exposure is ruined.
If you're using timed exposures, you'll just have to trial and error until you get a good one. Try to judge how often the lightning is striking and set a 15" - 30" exposure time depending on that.
ISO: Low. In fact, I prefer 100. The light is so bright and intense that you don't need your camera set too sensitively to catch it, and you definitely don't want things to get grainy. You're going to open your aperture wide and you're controlling the shutter speed, so here's where you can be extra conservative.
Aperture: f/3.5 - 5.6
The best lightning shots are achieved when it's not too cloudy. If there are too many clouds, the lightning just reflects all over the sky and it's harder if not impossible to capture the actual bolts. If it is cloudy and you want to try anyway, use a smaller (higher) aperture to avoid overexposure by the light reflected off the clouds.
Here is a bolt I caught a few nights ago. I overexposed it because it was a bit too cloudy for the aperture I used (f/3.5). I adjusted the levels in post-processing to correct the problem, but lesson learned and now I can pass it on to you! At least it created a neat color effect. Considering that I dragged my butt out of bed to get this one, I'm pretty happy with it!
Please feel free to post your lightning shots and any suggestions and tips here, too! And don't hesitate to disagree with me if you have a better technique. I'm here to learn as well!
Thank you for the tutorial, I've wanted to try to take a lightning photo in my project but since starting on 1st January we haven't had a single thunder storm!
@emmar84 I feel ya, Emma. We could go a year without a good one, or have a dozen in a few months. The one we got the other night was courtesy of a ridiculous warm front that moved through and brought the temps back up to the 80s after it had already dropped below freezing for what we thought was the rest of the year. Ah, well. I figured at least folks down under might be getting some storms about now.
Wow @elke Thank you for showing my picture! I agree, I used just a long series of 2 second releases and got this one. I was only two times successful in 300 shots, but I got it.
I've found that 13" to 15" seconds at around F9 works for me. So long as you've got a tripod and it's stable you don't really need a remote either.
You will find that you take quite a few shots of just blank sky, the lightning shots make it worth it though.
I might have to try this bulb technique though. :)
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And I COULD view that FB photo if my work job didn't have a stupid web filter. But I will check it out as soon as I get home!
@jasonbarnette As usual Jason, fantastic photos
And you'd better! Oh, and yeah, go ahead and click that "like" thingy too haha
You will find that you take quite a few shots of just blank sky, the lightning shots make it worth it though.
I might have to try this bulb technique though. :)