Tigera

Lightening strike showing small forks of lightening (To view the full shot click on the photo)

Did you ever wonder how photographers capture those amazing shots of bolts of lightening streaking over the sky?  It would have to be one of the most challenging photos to capture.  The ‘non-storm’  this evening provided me with ample opportunity to use the manual settings on my Olympus e520 DSLR  to improve my ability to capture some great lightening shots.

Previously, I have braved the wind and rain on our balcony to get some lightening shots, opting for the lazy automatic ‘fireworks’ setting on my camera that evoked a slow shutter speed to capture the lightening.  However, I thought my initial results were mediocre when compared to more professional photographs of lightening that showed clear lightening forks, clouds and a darker sky.

My previous shots of lightening were blown out with light and did not show the crisp detail of the lightening across a darkened sky.  This was due to the camera’s shutter  being open for a set period of time as designated by the automatic settings.  As a result, capturing the lightening was by purely by chance and the increased open shutter time captured all the light as well.  So for these photos, I used the following settings on the camera:

1. Set the camera up on a tripod to keep the camera steady whilst the shutter was open preventing blurring in the shot.
2. Covered the viewfinder with the hot-shoe cover to prevent background light affecting the exposures.
3. Set the shutter release to bulb mode, which keeps the shutter open for as long as the shutter release button is pressed.
4. Set the aperture to a small value (f/16) to capture a darker image by restricting the beam of light into the camera, resulting in a darker shot.
5. The AF (Auto Focus) mode was set to manual focus.  If the camera is in single or continuous mode it will not open the shutter until it was correctly focussed on an object, which is difficult to achieve in low light. So the camera was manually focussed on the sky instead.  

Multiple Lightening strikes over Tivoli Hill, Ipswich (To view the full shot click on the photo)

The photo above was one of the final photos I took and by this stage, I felt a little more confident with holding down the shutter release for about 45 seconds to capture multiple bolts of lightening over an extended period of time.   I believe the lower aperture value really contributed to avoiding a blown out white effect with lack of detail in the lightening strikes.  In the shots below, I was not quite so confident with keeping the shutter open for a long period of time and I was only able to capture one lightening strike as a result.

Lightening strike and rear tail light trails from a car. (To view the full shot click on the photo)

Anyway, not a bad effort for my first time using manual settings on the camera to capture lightening.  Realistically, I should have been using a wired cable release to control the shutter on the camera without adding shake from my hands that could blur the shot.    I hope this storm season provides me with more opportunities to get some good shots, hopefully with a wired cable release next time!

Lightening strike with car headlight trails. (To view the full shot click on the photo)

Lightening strike with cloud detail. (To view the full shot click on the photo)