How to Photograph Lightning

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Lightning is one of Nature’s most impressive displays and capturing it with a camera is a challenge, but the results can be almost as grand as the natural spectacle. There are a lot of overlaps between lightning photography and fireworks photography, but lightning’s unscheduled appearance adds an element of luck to the adventure.

Before we get started, there are two points I’d like to make:

  1. Lightning is incredibly awesome, fun to photograph, and surprisingly easy to photograph.
  2. Lightning is incredibly dangerous.

Before we get started, let's talk about point #2 for a minute...

Lightning kills around 2,000 people a year around the world. This makes it one of the world's most dangerous weather phenomena. So, before you grab your metal tripod and head outside in the face of a storm to take photos, do some homework and use liberal amounts of common sense. For lightning safety tips, go to the NOAA Lightning Safety website and study up.

Now let's talk about #1...

Some awesome and "cool" lightning facts:

  1. About 100 times per second, a lightning bolt strikes somewhere on the earth. That is 8,640,000 strikes per day.
  2. A lightning bolt can reach up to 50,000F (27,760C). That is more than 5 times hotter than the surface of the sun―that same sun that is so hot it warms the earth from 93 million miles away. Cool, right?

Note: There is a lot of reading to be done on lightning, and some of it is incredibly interesting. I am here to talk about photography and not the "anatomy" of a lightning strike; so, in the interest of saving time, I will not get overly scientific here, but feel free to do your own research into this incredible phenomenon.

So, know that lightning is even more awesome and dangerous than you thought; you want to safely go out to capture it with your camera.

There are many different methods that successful lightning photographers employ to capture lightning. And, in the case of lightning, there are lightning-specific gadgets you can add to your camera bag to help you out as well. So, not only are there different ways to get the shot, there are different mousetraps, too.

As you are about to see, the techniques employed for getting good lightning photos are similar to the way you capture fireworks photography, but the biggest difference with lightning is that the photographer has absolutely no idea when and where it will strike―lightning is completely random.

Setup

An SLR, DSLR, or mirrorless camera is likely to be the best tool for the job. A point-and-shoot camera that has a "manual" mode and minimal shutter delay can also be used. Some mobile apps even exist to help you get lightning photos with your smartphone or tablet, too.

Lightning can be photographed during the day or night, but some gear can help you get the shot you want in any lighting conditions.

  1. A camera support. Note that I did not say "tripod." Generally, with lightning photography, you aren't holding the camera to your eye waiting for a strike; you will set up the camera on a support and hope to capture a strike in the field of view of your lens. For lightning, you can always use your trusty tripod (especially if shooting at night), but to maximize your flexibility, a bean bag or car-window mount might be great options. The car-window mount gives you the added benefit of being inside a vehicle while the storm approaches.
  2. A cable release. Important for reducing camera shake―especially when doing long exposures.
  3. A spare battery. The Law of Murphy says you will miss the best strikes after your camera battery dies!
  4. A pocket full of memory cards. You might be taking a lot of photos of no lightning in-between strikes. Be prepared to delete photos, or pop in another card.
  5. A flashlight, if it is dark outside.
  6. A SAFETY PLAN. As I said before, lightning is dangerous. If it is getting too close for comfort, you need to have a plan in place to take shelter indoors or in a vehicle to protect yourself. Lightning storms are often harbingers of heavy rain and even damaging hail. Do NOT get stuck outside as the tallest thing in a wide-open space holding onto a metal tripod!

The Frame

Storms come from different directions on different days. Keep an eye on the weather to "get ahead" of the storm. There are a number of weather and lightning-tracking websites available on your computer, tablet, or smartphone. There are even some dedicated lightning tracking apps like Lightning Finder and Spark that show up-to-the-minute maps of strike activity.

" The Law of Murphy says you will miss the best strikes after your camera battery dies!"

Fact: Lightning is in the sky, so a wide-angle lens is going to get you the most coverage and maximize your chance of getting a strike in your frame.

Before the storm comes, spend some time at home looking at lightning photos on the Internet. My guess is that the images you are most drawn to are those with not only amazing strikes, but those images that are composed with some sort of interesting landscape elements. A photo capturing the most spectacular lightning strike will likely not be a great photo if there is a construction site, shopping mall, half of a speeding car, or something else awkwardly crowding the frame. From what I have seen, expansive landscapes/waterscapes with big-cloud storms and cityscapes seem to work well as compositional elements for lightning photos. If you want to photograph only an expanse of sky and a lightning bolt, no worries. But, if you want to make your photograph stand out as an artistic piece capturing one of nature's most dynamic and dramatic forces, think about the entire photograph, not just the lightning.

This is where you need a bit of luck to enter the fray.

You do not control where and when the storm comes. Nor can you always reach the best vantage point. Remember to stay safe and play the cards you have been dealt. Today might not be the storm for the best photos. My guess is that some of the most successful lightning images are often the result of more luck than skill.

Camera Settings

With fireworks photography, one of the keys is to remain flexible with your camera settings and, if you are not getting the shot you want, change things up. With lightning, the same thing applies, however, fireworks are scheduled. Lightning is not. That last strike you overexposed might be the last one of the storm. That is simply the nature of photographing random and unscheduled events. So, before you head out, have a safety plan, prepare yourself for failure, and hope for success.

  1. Focus. Unlike fireworks, the camera will likely not have time to focus on a lightning strike and then get an image. The trick here is to set the lens or camera to focus at the infinity position so that everything past a certain distance is in focus. See the linked article for a discussion on infinity focus.
  2. White Balance. "Auto" should be fine, but there is a popular opinion that the "cooler" WB settings give the scene a "blue cast" that works well with lightning. It is a matter of personal preference, of course. Also, something else to consider: there are some striking black-and-white lightning photographs that can be captured.
  3. Noise Reduction. Leave it off for your night shots and keep the shutter speeds short enough to not worry about noise buildup.
  4. Flash. Off. Nature is going to pop its awesome flash.
  5. ISO. Set it low. Feel free to leave it at your camera's native ISO setting. For nighttime shots you will be working from a camera support and not trying to squeeze a handheld shot off. For daytime, you don't need higher ISO. Use 100 or 200.
  6. Mode. This is going to be dependent on the technique you are using. I will discuss this in the next section.
  7. Aperture. Variable. If you are being smart and safe, the lightning bolt will not be hitting the ground anywhere near your camera, and depth of field will not be an overriding issue. Your aperture setting will likely be near the middle of the range, but you may change it up depending on the conditions or the technique you are using.
  8. Shutter Speed. This also depends on your technique. Stay tuned...

Technique #1: The Bulb / Long-Exposure Method

This technique is similar to that used for fireworks and, because you may be leaving your shutter open for an extended time, it works best for low-light/nighttime lightning photography. Basically, you place your camera on a support and use one hand to activate the cable release to open the shutter and use the other hand to cross your fingers while you hope for a great lightning strike in the distance.

"Lightning happens fast, but often a return strike lingers in the sky for much more than an instant."

After the lightning strike, close the shutter. Exposure done.

Depending on the pace of the action, you might want to check your LCD to see how the image looked. Do you need to recompose? Was it overexposed as you were waiting too long for the bolt from the clouds? You may need to adjust your aperture if you felt that too much light came into the frame over a short period, or open your aperture if you failed to capture some of the landscape. This is where it pays to be flexible. Also, try to note how long your shutter was open, either by mentally counting seconds, using a watch, or by looking at the last image's metadata on your LCD.

For instance, if you waited 30 seconds for a lightning strike and found the entire image was overexposed, you might want to close the aperture a bit to make sure the next 30-second exposure is better. Or, leave the aperture alone and shorten the exposure. No lightning? Release the shutter and immediately open it back up for the next shot. Remember, lightning is not scheduled, so do not be rigid with your exposures.

One of my favorite lightning photos, "Road," by renowned storm landscape photographer Mitch Dobrowner, was taken using this method. Mitch says, "I do nothing special [for lightning] except compose for it, based on how/where a storm may be 'electrified', and then shoot in sequence via time exposures (between 2 seconds and 10 seconds). Then, I just cross my fingers and (sometimes) pray..... "

Before I move on with more lightning stuff, let’s analyze Dobrowner's image for a moment. I am sure you have probably seen dramatic images of a more prolific lightning strike, but what Dobrowner has done here has successfully combined a striking composition (the road) and incredible lighting (the linear sun break before the horizon) into an image that would likely be successful without a lightning bolt. The lightning's cameo appearance to the left of the road does an incredible job of balancing the dissymmetry of the trees to the right of the road and, therefore, keeps the otherwise symmetrical image in balance. The image is a wonderful landscape photograph and works particularly well because it is a whole image; not just a photo of a bolt of lightning.

I mentioned Murphy's Law earlier. It comes into play here, as well. I can almost guarantee that if you decided to reduce your aperture after that first exposure, the next bolt of lightning will happen within moments of you opening the shutter and you will be left with an underexposed landscape!

I can tell also tell you, from experience, that the absolute best lightning strikes happen when you are reviewing images on your LCD or making adjustments to the camera! Thanks, Murph!

Technique #2: The Wild West Method

How quick is your shutter finger? Lightning happens fast, but often a return strike lingers in the sky for much more than an instant. A lot of great lightning shots have been made by photographers letting the initial strike serve as the catalyst for opening the shutter. To do this you will need 1) fast reflexes and, 2) a camera with very little shutter lag. Today's point-and-shoot cameras have minimal shutter lag, but "fast shutter lag" used to be the sole realm of SLR and rangefinder cameras.

So, set up your camera on a support and select "bulb" as your shutter speed. Have the cable release under your itchy shutter finger, take a deep breath, and as soon as you see a flash, press the button! When the strike ends, release the shutter.

Check out the photo or keep your eyes on the sky and get ready to fire another shot.

Technique #3: The Gadget Method

If you think that using technology is cheating, you might want to stick to the first two techniques. If you believe in better living through tech, a lightning trigger might just be the think for you. B&H sells some great lightning triggers from several brands. Some of these devices mount on your camera's hot shoe or tripod connect to the camera via a cable (make sure you get the correct version for your camera) and feature sophisticated electronic triggers that tell your camera to take a photo when they detect lightning.

Some of the triggers detect an emission of infrared light that precedes a lightning strike and others are multi-use―triggered not only by lightning , but they also have modes for motion, laser light, sound, and other external inputs. Once triggered, they can automatically activate your camera's shutter in a fraction of a millisecond. These triggers often detect lightning during both day and nighttime.

Lightning photography expert and storm chaser Roger Hill is a fan of using lightning triggers during the day, but prefers to use the bulb method for his nighttime shots. For the lightning triggers to work, he says, "You have to have a return stroke from a lightning bolt to capture it, as a lightning strike is VERY fast, so fast even the trigger cannot detect a single stroke."

Final Thoughts

In summary, there are a few things to remember before you go out and try to catch lightning in a camera:

  1. Lightning is random. It is not scheduled. It comes and goes as it pleases. Be prepared to come away empty-handed when trying to photograph it but do not be discouraged. With more than 8 million lightning strikes every day on the planet, it is likely you will have more opportunities.
  2. LIGHTNING IS DANGEROUS. Yes, I already said that―several times. There is a reason for my redundancy. The bottom line is that we are talking about taking photos of something that can kill or severely injure you. Be safe. Be smart. Use common sense. Have quick access to shelter. If you are pointing your camera straight up to capture lightning, you should find yourself photographing a ceiling or the overhead of your car because you were smart enough to go inside several minutes before the storm got close.

So, have fun, good luck, get some great shots, but, most importantly, BE SAFE!

49 Comments

Or you can simply get one of the newer Olympus (now OMSystems) cameras that offer 'Live Composite', set your exposure time to correctly expose for the ambient light, trip the shutter, sit down in your lawn chair and watch the LCD. When you have captured several lightening strikes and are happy with the image on the LCD, end the exposures. You can use this feature for lightening, fireworks, star trails, light painting, etc. for up to 3 hours without over exposing the ambient light. The camera will produce a composite image in-camera -- it's an awesome feature, and one that every major camera manufacturer will offer at some future point.

Hey Greg,

Yet one more example of some great tech that lies in Oly/OM's Micro Four Thirds system that is rarely found in more popular cameras.

I have seen that mode in action at night photo workshops and I can safely say that almost everyone who witnesses it in action is a bit jealous that their cameras don't have that functionality!

Thanks for making us jealous and thanks for reading!

Best,

Todd

Is it okay to use a neutral density filter to extend the exposure time of daytime shots and increase your chance for a lightning strike?

Hi Edward,

I don't see why there would be an issue with that. Actually, its a great idea. With some fast-moving storm clouds, you might get a milky, streaky gray sky punctuated with a bright lightning bolt! I assume others have done this, but I haven't seen many examples!

The only potential downside is that the dimmer strikes might not register as well due to the darkened filter.

Thanks for reading!

Best,

Todd

I can be very helpful depending on the distance of the storm/bolts. There is a point that the exposure will be to dark to get the bolt in the 100ms say like a 1min exposure the bolt won't show. However this can be good that only the brightest closest will show...can be dangerous to have that close of hunting bolts. 3-6 stops is as far as I would go.

Hi,

For years I used a 5 stop ND filter for photographing lightning. I would adjust the camera to give me a 30-second exposure, and it worked great. The problem is that you will come home with 200-300 images that you have to go through to find the 8 images that contain lightning. A lightning trigger will make your lightning photography easier. Check out these articles on my site: [jeffcolburn.com]

  • How To Photograph Lightning and Live to Tell About It - [Link removed.]
  • How To Take Photographs On A Windy Day - [Link removed.]
  • The Lightning Bug - Lightning Trigger - [Link removed.]

Have Fun,

Jeff

Hi Jeff,

Thanks for the awesome tip and the links. Unfortunately, I had to remove the specific hyperlinks to publish, but your comment is out of B&H jail!

Thanks for reading!

Best,

Todd

I use a Sony a6300 with an 10-18 wide angle lens to record videos in my favorite spot under an alcove on Queens Blvd. in Forest Hills. I take 4K videos at 24fps, manual mode, shutter speed of 1/30, F11 or F16 and ISO between 100 and 800 depending on how light or dark the sky is. I then run the videos in the Photo app in my iMac desktop operating system (Sierra) and save the individual frames (it's under the gear icon) as an 8mp TIFF. I can also save a frame in Quick Time by stopping at the frame, clicking Edit, Copy, going into Photoshop, creating a new file from the clipboard and clicking Edit, Paste. The video will have all the stages of the lightning on indivual frames. I then crop and tweak in Photoshop, flatten the layers, and save as a jpg. Although they are only 8mp files, I wouldn't miss the lightning and all the phases of the llightning are recorded. If the sky is light, I underexpose and adjust in Photoshop. 

Hey Michael,

Good stuff! 

Having lived in the Florida panhandle, I find NYC pretty devoid of good lightning. I was told that the county I lived in has more lightning strikes per year than any other place in the US...fireworks almost every night!

Thanks for stopping by!

Thank you for the excellent article and tips, amazing photos!

Hey Darek,

I can only take credit for the shots I took, but, I agree, the other ones are awesome!

Thanks for reading and the kind words!

Incredible article and photos! Would you be able to share what kind of camera, lenses, and settings you used for these photos above? I want to start lightning photography as a hobby and I am still contemplating what kind of camera to purchase, although I am leaning toward the Nikon brand. For lenses I'm still not sure what to get. Thanks!

Hi Robert!

Thanks for the compliments. Only one of the photographs was actually mine and it was taken with a Nikon D300 and likely the NIKKOR 17-55mm f/2.8 lens.

Roger Hill took the other watermarked photos and he might talk about his gear somewhere on the interweb. When it comes to lightning, gear is probably secondary to luck! Any modern camera with a good lens can be used to get great images of lightning these days! Regardless of the brand, you'll want to make sure you can control the aperture and shutter speed manually to improve your chances of catching a strike. 

Thanks for reading!

You're welcome Todd! I ended up investing in the Nikon D750 with Nikkor 24-70mm f2.8 lens. I'm enjoying every minute of it so far and I already get to try techniques 1 & 2 this weekend since it's supposed to be severe weather where I'm at. I will eventually purchase a lightning trigger device sometime in the next few months as well as purchase another lens to start some engagement/wedding photography. I really hope I can get lucky this weekend! I will definetly share if I get any good shots.

Good luck this weekend, Robert! Great body and lens combination there...you should be well equipped for a lot of photographic challenges.

Make sure to stay safe.!  What good is a photo if you aren't around to enjoy it? (Play on Han Solo's wisdom.)

Thanks Todd! I'm planning to do it while I sit in my garage. I am going to try technique 1 first but need a little clarification on where I should set my settings (basically explaining to a beginner). I appreciate it!

Hey Robert,

The garage is a good place to stay safe!

For method one, the key is to get the camera to take a long enough exposure that you can maximize your chance of catching a strike. During the day or, even at dusk, your "normal exposures" will be very short - a fraction of a second. To lengthen the exposure, you want to set the D750's ISO to 200 and start closing your aperture. Once the lens closes past f/11, you will likely start seeing some softening of the image due to diffraction, but you want to stretch the exposure as long as you can. At night, this shouldn't be an issue as you can get long exposures at f/8 or wider.

So, go to Aperture Priority Mode, set your ISO to 200 and close the aperture smaller and smaller and start shooting. Find a good exposure and note the amount of time the shutter was open. Now you can use that as a baseline and either keep shooting on Aperture Priority, or go to bulb mode and hold the shutter open manually while keeping an eye on your sweep second hand. If you go longer than the exposure that the camera "suggested" you will start overexposing. If your shutter is open a shorter time, you will go underexposed.

The best way to shoot in bulb is with a wired or radio remote trigger so that you don't have to shake the camera while you hold the shutter open.

I hope this helps! If it doesn't, keep the questions coming and let me know how it turns out!

Thanks!

 

Hey Todd unfortunately I'm a little dissapointed with mother nature. We did not see any lightning at all but we did get a ton of rain. I was going to try and use the bulb mode since I do have a remote trigger device. I planned to set my D750 to bulb mode with my aperture set at f11, my ISO at 200 and then keeping the shutter open as long as I could until I get a lightning strike. Then I could close the aperture a bit if it turned out overexposed or open it up more if it turned out underexposed. I think I am beginning to understand this concept better now. When I'm in bulb mode is there a way to tell the camera to automatically shut after 30 seconds if I don't press the trigger or do I just have to keep trying to press my luck and hope I get a lightning strike the next round and so forth? 

Your help is greatly appreciated by the way!

Hey Robert,

Besides staying safe, always know that, when you do lightning photography, the Law of Murphy applies along with the laws of physics!

The best lightning strikes ALWAYS happen when you are between shots, changing batteries, out of memory, or on a bathroom break.

As far as bulb and 30 seconds, the D750, in manual or shutter priority mode will allow you to select a 30-second shutter speed, so if 30 seconds at a particular aperture is getting you good exposures, you can set to 30-seconds and forget it. Also, you can do continuous shooting at 30-seconds so that you only have a fraction of a second between shots. The advantage of this is that you wont miss much action. The disadvantage is you will probably get an overexposure if you catch several strikes in one 30-second frame. The solution is to turn the camera off after a strike inside that 30-second exposure.

Good luck! I hope the weather turns ugly for you! Please let me know if you have any other questions. Thanks!

You have been such a great help Todd! I'm hoping we see some ugly weather soon because I'm pumped up about this and can't wait to start experimenting. I'm trying the bulb mode first and then the 30 second technique to see which works better for me. I would love to continue seeing your photos and keeping in touch. 

Hey Robert,

No worries at all! That is what we are here for!

I hope you get some lightning soon and some good shots!

I'll be around! Thanks for hanging out with us at the B&H blog!

Hey Todd tonight I had the perfect opportunity to give it my first shot! With the photos I have I think they turned out really good! A couple of them are either under or overexposed but I would love to send these to you and get you opinions of them and get some advice on how I could make them better. These photos were taken in bulb mode with ISO set to 200 and the aperature set to f/11 along with a remote trigger device. I can also learn to fix the over and underexposed photos with the new Adobe Photoshop program I got for Christmas.

Hey Robert,

Glad it worked out! Yep, under and over-exposed shots are going to be the norm with lightning. You really cant avoid it, even if you are using triggers and other gadgets. The thing to do is keep your "base" proper exposure in mind and never go above it. Sometimes, if your base exposure is 30 seconds, you will get a strike at the 28 second mark and blow out the frame, or you'll get one at 2-seconds, close the shutter and find an underexposed shot.

Feel free to send them to toddv at bhphoto.com and I will check them out.

Looking forward to it! Nice Xmas gift there (Photoshop)!

Sent my photos. Hope you got them!

Hey Robert,

I got them this morning. Good shots! Thanks for sharing. I'll address your questions here so that others can learn from your trials...

"All these images were take anywhere from 2 seconds to 45 seconds after I started my exposures using bulb mode. One or 2 of these I was also impatient and pressed my wireless trigger device too soon. I think for next time I will aim to keep each exposure for no longer than 30 seconds and if nothing happens I'll just start a new exposure. There is one thing I may be misunderstanding using the bulb technique. To my knowledge you can have an exposure time for as long as you want in bulb mode until you end your exposure right? Or is there a way to set up the exposure to end at 30 seconds automatically if I don't manually end it myself? Also, is it ideal to get lightning strikes towards the middle of your exposure (10-20 seconds) to avoid under/overexposing the image? Lightning can strike at anytime and seems really hard to capture them in the exact timeframe we are looking for."

While you are shooting lightning, keep evaluating your base exposure. If you start to go overexposed at 15 or 30 seconds (or more or less), then stop your exposure at that time and start anew even if you didn't get a strike. There is no need in the digital world, to conserve frames, so just start another shot. If you are shooting after dark, your base exposure should not change much. If you are shooting at dawn or dusk, you will have to keep adjusting for the changing light.

Bulb keeps the shutter open as long as you want it to. It can be very fast, or it can be open for a long time. Most cameras have selectable shutter speeds up to 30 seconds. So, if your camera does 30 seconds, there is no need to do bulb. In fact,  you can set it to 30 seconds (or less) and put it on continuous mode so that the camera just keeps shooting automatically while you get a beverage or surf the B&H blog. If you are shooting in Bulb, you will need to stop the exposure manually and then start the next one.

If you get a strike early in a long exposure, you might close the shutter and get a shot with an underexposed foreground. If the strike is late, you might get an overexposure. That is part of the (fun?) experience of shooting a phenomenon of nature that is completely random in location and schedule! You just have to roll with it and hope for a great shot at the end of the storm!

Keep experimenting and having fun! Stay safe! 

I will definitely be taking your advice and next time we get a lightning storm here I will hope to get even better shots! I will keep in touch in the future. Thanks again!

No worries, Robert! Glad to help!

I like the safety of shooting semi-indoors, but the next challenge is to get an (more) interesting foreground!

Good luck!

Nice article.  Personally I've never been able to capture a strike but with these pointers I might try it again.                                                                 

Not sure if this would help.  If you count the seconds between the cracks of thunder,  for each second is a mile then you can tell if the storm is coming closer or moving away.  The thunder is usually right after the lightning strike so you can gauge about when the next strike will occur.  Without using a watch just count off one thousand one, one thousand two, etc.  And if you count only one one thousand make sure you're shelterd good because that puppy is right over head.

Hey Art,

Yep, the speed of sound is a handy way to calculate the distance from the strikes, but you never know if the next one is going to be where the last one was, or right overhead!

Thanks for reading and thanks for the tips! Stay safe!

Hey Troy!

Thanks for clarifying! It all stems from the fact that the speed of sound is 343.59 meters/second at sea level...in dry air...at 20 degrees C.

Stay safe!

Great article! Covers the most essential techniques for photographing lightning, and stresses the most important, safety, very well. I've had a few close calls through the years, and would like to add, keep an eye on what's going on behind you. Numerous times I have been so concentrated on what is going on in front of me, I didn't notice the storm building behind me until it let me know it was there.

Also, when setting my aperture, I tend to base it on my distance from the storm. If I'm really close to the storm, I'll use a small aperture like f/11 or f/16. The further I get away, I'll open it up to f/8 or even wider. I've found a wide aperture close to the storm, renders the strike very thick and unnatural looking. Of course this is a matter of personal preference, however, I would suggest experimenting and see the difference for yourself.

Again, great article! Can't wait for monsoon season here in the southwest!

Hey Jason,

Thanks for your comments and tips! Awesome stuff!

Also, thanks for adding to the safety conversation. Very important!

Be sure to share your photos with us here at B&H! Good luck and stay safe!

Under Technique #1, why would you have to have an underexposed landscape if the lightning struck soon after reducing the aperture? How about leaving the shutter open after the lightning strike until you think the landscape will be properly exposed? 

Hey Dan,

Thanks for your question!

What I was trying to convey is the following...

If you take a 30-second exposure, and get an overexposed landscape, regardless of if you caught a bolt or not, you know that 30 seconds is too long for that particular landscape. Your options are reducing your aperture and keeping the shutter time the same, or keeping the aperture constant and reducing the shutter time.

Once you figure out the proper exposure for the landscape, you can adjust your shutters speed and/or aperture to help maximize your efficiency for capturing strikes. If you closed your aperture to reduce the exposure on the landscape, and then capture a bolt in the time the shutter is open, there is nothing to say that you cannot keep the shutter open until you get to the calculated time for the properly exposed landscape.

Having said that, you will run the risk of capturing another strike...not a bad thing unless it blows out your exposure. Also, with digital photography, it is much easier to recover detail out of the underexposed parts of the image than overexposed. So, to hedge your bets, you might want to end the shot with an underexposed landscape in the hopes of pulling data from it in post processing and, thereby not risking capturing a second blot that ruins the frame or overexposing the landscape.

It is all up to you how to roll. There are no hard-and-fast rules for photographing lighting except...STAY SAFE! 

I hope that helped clear things up for you! Thanks for reading!

Another point worth emphasizing, especially in connection with the "Wild West" method, is to make sure the camera doesn't have to meter anything. No auto exposure/Av/Tv/P, no auto white balance, etc., beyond of course the no auto focus mentioned above. Even in M, I suspect it might be advantageous to select any mode other than evaluative (e.g. partial, spot, center-weighted), since I think it still meters to report the exposure bias for the EXIF data. The point of this is that as soon as you hit that shutter (or your gadget does), it can open the shutter as soon as possible, and while the computing is mighty fast these days, that evaluating or metering is still going to slow things down, even if by just a fraction of a second, and that could make all the difference in catching a return stroke.

Hi J. Randall,

Great point! For the "Wild West" method, the more manual the better, to give you the quickest draw possible.

Thanks for reading and commenting!

I really appreciate what you have written here.  This gives me something to think about if we get any more storms worth photographing; seems like they have been few and far between lately in our area:  look like they are coming on great across the plains, but then they hit the Big Muddy and fizzle out.

You did not mention my method which is using a tripod and setting the camera on manual with a shutter speed of 50 for night and 800 or so for day (depending on the available light) and with the aperture set at f/4, ISO 3200, and auto white balance (yes, grainy, but effective).  I use a remote trigger and have my camera set on continuous high which gives me just over 5 frames per second.  The challenge is - as with any lightning shot - to hit the button in time to get the best of the strike.  Obviously this has the limitation of relying on my own reflexes, but that, to me, is the challenge.  I am shooting at home from my porch, so there are trees in the distance to provide scenery, but I focus more on the sky and have only the meerest outline of the trees showing (except for when I get a "daylight" flash and it illuminates everything in the field as though it were midday).  I think my focus is more on cloud to cloud lightning which can "skitter" across the sky and through two or three pictures.  These are  just for my own pleasure and would probably be too "grainy" because of the high ISO for commercial use.  But we don't get many chances at lightning here in Tennessee like you can get in the plains; storms are brief for the most part and I don't have a lot of time to experiment with settings.  But I may try the bulb method next time; I've done it in the past and tend to get too much light before I can get it closed.

 

Hey Mary,

I like your method too! There are lots of different ways to catch the lightning in your camera! What kind of camera and lens are you using?

When doing the Bulb method, keep taking "test" shots to see how long you can keep the shutter open before you start to get overexposed. Once you know that, I would dial it back a few seconds or stops so that, if you catch a bolt, you don't end up very overexposed. Keep experimenting and making exposures. The light of night changes, so a 30 second exposure on a clear moonless night might be way too long for a cloudy or moonlit night.

Or...get a lightning trigger!

Good luck and stay safe!

Thank you for the excellent article and tips. shooting lightning is an energetic challenge that can obviously yield some beautiful photographs. I have graduated from the "wild west" photographer to now a photograher leaning toward the bulb mode. I know I need to save up for a lens with a wider aperture setting but.... thats another story.......

Hi Jim! Thanks for your comments!

If you are looking for a larger-aperture lens for lightning photography, do not be afraid to find an older manual focus used lens for the task. As you are likely shooting lightning at great distances (hopefully!), you might find that an older MF lens with a hard-stop at infinity is a great benefit and that grabbing a used example fits better into your budget!

Stay safe out there!

Excellent information, especially the safety points!

Thank you, Richard! Stay safe out there!

Great Advice. Thank you for the article.

Thanks for reading, James. And thank you for the compliment!

Thank you, Chris!  I am glad you enjoyed the article!