That's a pretty decent shot of Mosi Oa Tunya

My trick for shooting lightning is just using a very long shutter speed - 30s usually depending on how much lightning is about. Just a matter of timing really, but I find long exposure to be the best way to guarantee a good shot.







Excuse the big images! Uploaded in a hurry...

It was smoking and thundering that day !!

nice lightning shots I'll have to try longer exposures but they are hard to do in daylight.I will try next time we have a storm at night though.

Goodbye, I've never shot lightening before so maybe I don't understand.. but if the shutter is open for that long and the lightening disappears that quickly wouldn't it blur? Or is it so fast that it acts almost like a still object?

Wonderful shots

Because the light that the lightning produces is so intense, it burns onto the sensor. Like using a flash. It would only blur if it were hand-held.

Church in Rome, Italy, February 2008
ISO 200
f/11
5"
18-70mm @ 18mm

Here is an example of what I mean. This photo had a 5 second exposure. I sat infront of the camera only for about 2 seconds. Because the flash 'burnt' me onto the sensor, you can still see me.

Because there is light behind me, i look 'ghost' like.

With the lightning, when there was no lightning striking, the clouds would have been dark, therefore the exposure remained correct.

How come you dont blur onto the frame or off the frame?

I would assume because it is so dark, the sensor doesn't pick him up as he runs off. He is not very bright in the picture even though the flash burnt him in, therefore I would assume it was very dark in there.

Because the flash firing essentially freezes me by burning that light onto the sensor (of film if taken on a film camera).

The light entering the camera whilst i moved into/out of position was not great enough to register as the background light was so much greater.

Thanks for the explanation, very helpful. Defiantly going to try this next time there is a storm

Excuse my ignorance but how do you upload the pics? I have a couple some of you may enjoy although I'd say I'm less than a novice

You need to upload them to some kind of storage site (flickr etc...) and then link them when you write a post.

Thanks Jaali shall go join Flckr and see if I can manage to get some on here

It'll be great to see them!

See if this works?? Fingers crossed I'm doing this right!!



Taken with a canon 350d not sure on all settings will have to look them up the lens would be 17 -28mm though