Nature’s flashgun
After seeing some of the great shots that came out of the storms at Glastonbury, I realised that I had yet another hole in my photography knowledge that needed filling and last week, I had the perfect opportunity to experiment.
After reaching fatigue point recently, Kirsten and I got the chance to stay at a friend’s apartment in Folkestone for a few days. While Folkestone may not be a hedonistic nirvana, it perfectly fitted the bill with a stunning sea view and absolutely nothing to do but unwind. On Thursday, after a day in the pool and a fine feast, the evening entertainment arrived with dark clouds filling the horizon and distant rumbles. While lacking in tripods, monopods or anything other than a 24-70 lens, the fact that it was all so far out to sea allowed me to sit outside on the rooftop balcony in the dry and snap away. Having now discovered the joy of using an ironing board and a box of sultana bran cereal as a camera support, I may never go back to Manfrotto again..
Now I have no idea what the official way to shoot lightning is so I ended up experimenting and found that the most successful technique was to shoot in RAW on bulb, predicting the flashes. With my aperture settling around the f5.6 mark in the end, most exposures were for around three or four seconds. Scientific stuff, eh?
For a more in-depth and accurate guide, there are plenty of guides online but this one seems pretty good to me. It’s well worth a go if you get chance. Just be careful with your positioning and have fun!
That’s a beauty at the top, my liege! outstanding.
Lovin’ that top frame buddy
Also, what ASA?? I’ve never shot storms either!!
Cheers chaps! The first frame may well make a canvas print at some point..
I varied my ISO as there’s no definite right answer as it all depends on ambient light pollution.
The picture at the top was 800ISO.
I’m blown away by these!
aw, I’m missing that flat already…
Wow! Very cool shots. Love them all but I do like how the lightning forks have added the extra foreground lighting over the water in the last one.
Handy link to the technique post too.
Thanks again, peeps. Just for your info, the little light in the bottom left of the middle frame is a ferry, heading to France. The lack of proper support has resulted in a mildy blobby boat in the pictures but it must have been an awesome from the middle of the channel!
Great shots! I can’t decide if I prefer the first shot here or the third, first for the strength of composition and the third for the wonderful light and texture you’ve caught in the seascape.
Also as for careful positioning – if you are going to be hit by one of these positioning isn’t ‘always’ going to help. I got hit and I was inside at the time!
Blimey! That sounds like an interesting experience! Were you injured?
Good stuff Mr. Neal!
Top one does it for me.
I was shooting lightning myself the other day, it was much harder..
…the problem was that it was mid-day – and even with the threatening clouds at 100 ISO, the longest Shutter speed was 1/2 second.
Ultimately I ended up shooting continuously with my finger solid on the shutter, in the hope that a bolt would appear as the shutter was open…
…it did – 3 x out of about 220 frames (not a great ratio).
The rain ended up wrecking a mkII – but hey ho both the mirror and express ran pretty big.
So my next investment will be some ND filters for those mid-day storms!
Seek out Lewis Whyld, SWNS rumour has it he IS the lightning man!
Stunning shots here Mr Neal. I’m looking forward to trying my hand at lightning photography this summer here on the highveld.
Yeah, Kirsten is always telling me about how beautiful the African storms were when she was growing up. I’m over in SA in March so will try and catch a few!
The lightning struck the chimney and I was holding the metal bar on the Rayburn at the time. Where my hand was touching it lit up in a rather funky electric blue before it blew me backwards but I escaped with nothing more than a bit of muscle strain from where my arm was thrown off the oven. Wouldn’t recommend it as a hobby.
One of my colleagues has just seen this and wants to know how much you’d sell the top shot on canvass?
@Ben Ouch! Still, that’s certainly a great line to drop into conversation!
@Akin Yeah of course. I just posted saying it was AFP-owned until I realised that it was shot on my holiday! Hurray!
What size is he/she after?
christ mate…
wherever you go…
its like your 70 200 is a flute and the pictures are mice or rats
))
very fucking cool
)
I concur with Prawn regarding your pied piper antiques! And the missus is drooling and believes that we need to have one of your works hanging on our wall. Signed, of course.
No probs, Akin. I obviously can’t go selling AFP-shot pictures but the stuff I shoot in my own time is fine. Let me know what you’re after! Surely your walls should be covered by your own masterpieces already though?
Great shots!
http://twitpic.com/94vih
I took this in Thailand back in 2005
Shot it on bulb – I think I ended up with around 10 seconds at f4 – iso 400 ish!
Just found this page too with a more detailed approach..
http://digital-photography-school.com/how-to-photograph-lightning