Today we have an interesting topic, Lightning most likely to occur during an electrical storm in the rain clouds. But lightning can also occur during a volcanic eruption, dust storms or tornadoes. It is called thunder. Of course; we all have seen this unique nature of the action, when the bright electric glow bright flash cuts through the dark sky and rush at to the ground. And then, after a while there is a confirmation of this strike booming, sometimes just a deafening thunder.
In ancient times, people were afraid of this natural phenomenon, in many nations the lightning was associated with punishment, and the punishment of the gods for the sins of the land. But we with you people who are wise they understand there is no any punishment, but nature of electricity is released.
Lightning for us is something elusive, a beast that cannot be caught. In this article I will highlight the main aspects of shooting lightning, learning about them, you will take pictures as true professionals.
- All you need:
- Camera:
- Tripod:
- Remote shutter:
- Rain protection for the camera:
- Naturally, we are able to watch the lightning every day Nevertheless, luck smiles at us, and sometimes we find ourselves in the right place at the right time, at this moment we have to be 110% ready, because the following case can wait very long.
- First of all, if you’re lucky, to vote “territory” in which lightning most often is one particular area, that’s it exactly what we need. Photograph better at wide angle;
Photographing
So you, based on the forecast, choose place it’s time to shoot. Many photographers allow the same mistake: trying to capture lightning, they forget about the composition of photos. Well, with lightning in the frame, the photo will look like in a hundred times more effective.
It is not recommended, as we all know, during a lightning storm to stand in an open field, and even more so if the distance is an iron tripod. Here comes to the aid of remote shutter release. Install the camera and adjusting the performance of the remote, you can move away from your camera to a safe distance and take pictures from afar.
Very often, exposing the exposure when shooting lightning, photographers do not take into account the fact that the lightning itself is a very bright light source, so often the photos are overexposed. A flash of lightning is similar to a flash of your camera, it covers everything. Most of the light in the photo will come from the flash of lightning.
The dwell time is best to set the interval from 20 to 30 seconds, with these settings picture completely black with no light emitted from lightning. For myself, I found the best settings: f / 7, ISO 100 and shutter 30 seconds, if the lightning is very strong and close, and if the flash too far or weak, then set the aperture f / 5.
Of course, you have to make a few test shots to find the common values of aperture and shutter speed for yourself. All photos shown in this tutorial were made at about the settings described above (f / 7, ISO 100, 30 seconds), and advise you to take them as a basis.
Use your best wide-angle lens. Composing, place the horizon line as low as possible, because the main character in your photo appears the sky.As with all settings, focus, we also set up manually. Take a few test shots by moving the focus to the most distant objects, try to maximize their field.
Well, finally, a few tips
No matter how beautiful lightning, it is deadly; it will not free online comedy. The current in a lightning strike reaches 10-100 thousand amperes and the voltage there are about 1 million volts. That’s a lot … So, the
first rule “Do not take pictures of lightning, if it is less than one kilometer from you”.
Rule two – where there is thunder and lightning, there is often rain. So deal with shooting it is better to choose well-covered place that would not spoil their equipment. Such as you can Use an umbrella, protective covers.
Shoot in RAW. When the night is going to rain, it is very difficult to set the correct white balance and choose the exposure. Then it can be done in the editor.
If you read carefully, you probably already guessed which way how the photo was taken. And remember, photographing lightning is not quite standard, so it is possible that you will have your approach to business. May be these are better than me; I described the most convenient ways. Fans make a video with pictures dedicated: May God grant you the Zeus the thunder and lightning!
