Lightning.......

[ca7696]

does anyone have any tips for photographing Lightning? had a great storm last night, I tried but just couldnt "get it" had a 30 second exposure and got nothing... I have a canon 50D any settings also would be helpful...thanks

[jerryph]

This is the lighting section, not the lightning section... lol

Lightning photography is all about luck and repetition. It could take you hundreds of tries to get one good shot.

As far as settings, configure a camera set to manual and:
- Using a wide angle lens manually focused on infinity
- Use a small aperture between F/8 to F/16
- You should be getting exposures 1-2 stops under ambient and shutter speeds in the 30-45 second range
- Camera is on a tripod
- manually pressing the shutter button is ok, but a remote release minimizes camera shake
- lock mirror up for further vibration reduction.

Small note: Light travels faster than sound. When a storm is further away, you can gauge it's distance by the amount of time lapsed between the lightning and following thunder clap.