Lightning Photography

Photographing lightning strikes can be exciting, beautiful, cold, wet and deadly! Let’s talk about the last item first – avoiding the deadly part. The safest way to photograph lightning is when it’s several miles away and you’re in a nice building looking out over a great view of the approaching or departing storm. One of the least safe ways is taking your photos from the edge of a mountainside, or exposed cliffside, such as you find at Cedar Breaks, or Observation Point! For your safety, take your photos when the lightning is several miles away. Normally, a zoom wide-angle lens is preferable; don’t expect to get a large image, perfectly centered in your picture. Here is where luck enters.

Word of Caution: Don’t shoot or try to get out of the rain by going under a tree, they are lightning rods! If the hair on the back of your head, or arms is standing out – you’re way too close – get to cover immediately! And have someone with you that also knows CPR, just in case! If there is no cover nearby such as an alcove, cave, or inside your vehicle, try to find a depression in the ground, or lie flat. Again, do not take shelter under a tree, or high object. Common sense is the key to survival here.

Night Time Lightning Photography:

- Set your camera on a tripod.

- Connect a cable shutter release

- 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 your camera has incremental seconds settings, consider using these as another method.

- Set the aperture (f-stop) around f/5.6. Experiment a little with different settings but I recommend nothing higher than f/8 unless you want many bolts of lightning to occur in one photo. Depending on closeness, or intensity of the lightning, set your ISO at 200. Far away storms with smaller flashes may need ISO 400, but lightning flashes are very bright. Avoid blowing them out. Ambient foreground and background light, if any, will also affect the length of your exposure. City lights, or any skylight will blow out your lightning, if your exposure is too long

- Frame the picture where the most lightning is occurring, and/or where the most spectacular clouds are. Dave and I disagree on this aspect, spectacular clouds are pretty, but you want to be pointing at the major lightning source area. I have never had a problem with moving clouds, the strobe effect and intensity of the lightning will normally overcome the cloud movement, which is usually minimal.

- 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 about two seconds. Sheet lightning (anvil crawlers) sometimes last up to a second or more as they spread across the sky. If the storm is somewhat 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 farther away, and you are only framing the storm base, or you cannot see it developing or moving, then exposures can be anything you like! Try something between 20 seconds and 2 minutes. You can have longer exposure times for higher f/ stops. Bob bases his exposure times and f/stop on rapidity, distance and intensity of the lightning flashes. In Dammeron Valley storms are often nearby with extremely bright flashes. In this case, ISO 200 and f/11, usually for 30 seconds works pretty well. If you have an unusually intense storm with many flashes occurring in a short time, close the shutter and begin another exposure to avoid blowing out portions of overlapping flashes.

Day Time Lightning Photography – Yes, you can do it, at least some of the time!

- Camera on a tripod w/cable release

- Focus set to manual and at infinity

- Exposure set to manual and at a proper setting for current lighting conditions

- When you see a strike, quickly take your photo using the cable release. If the strike is short – you’ll miss it! If the strike is unusually longer – perhaps lasting near a second or two (and some do) you might catch it.

- Want to automate the process? The best price I’ve seen for a lightning strike detector/camera trigger is from AEO Lightning Strike for $189.00, advertized atwww.aeophoto.com. You’ll still need to have your camera set to manual operation as above, and they will take an exposure of every strike within many miles of you, including those out of sight, behind you etc. But that’s what the delete button is made for.

Any of you still shooting film can accomplish the same results, but with much more difficulty and expense. With digital cameras, you can just keep on making exposure after exposure as long as the storm lasts. But with film, you can go through a lot of rolls and processing on just one storm.

With practice comes perfection, and this especially applies to lightning photography, it’s all about patience and practice. Don’t give up if your first results are not what you were hoping for. Dammeron Valley is a great place to shoot summer electrical storms; they normally come through the valley on the East side or over Pine Valley Mountains. Anyone wishing to do so is invited to call Bob Lawson and shoot from his front (covered) deck, overlooking the valley and mountains. 574-3335/680-9812.

Happy & Safe Shooting,

David Doughman & Bob Lawson