How to take photos of thunderstom.
Yesterday was first day in year for thunderstorm in my place so i took photos of it and those photos will be example for my little tutorial on how to take photos of thunderstorms. Let me first say, safety is always number one priority so be careful when you taking photos of lightning.
Lets start. It's pretty simple but you will get amazing results.
First i will tell you what do you need for this:
- Camera with manual mode. (You can even use your smartphone, almost every new phone now got that function)
- Tripod (Sturdy tripod is necessary because you will take exposure of 20-30 seconds so it has to be stable for that time)
- Remote for camera (Optional)
This is what you need to do:
First step: Toggle camera to manual mode and toggle your lens to manual focus. You need to focus your lens to object far away by using live mode on camera or you can focus it from viewfinder. After you do that, don't move focus anymore, it's ready.
Second step: Exposure. That depends of place where you are. If there is a lot of street lights you will need to stop down aperture to about f/8 - f/11. About shutter speed, make it about 15-30 second exposure because lightning is pretty bright and it won't over exposure your shot. This is game of trial and error, but when you find "sweet spot" you will be amazed with results.
One thing, don't be discouraged if you don't capture any of lightning. It happened to me a lot of time. Yesterday i took about 40-50 photos and only 4 of them were good. It also depends of how strong and wide is lightning, as you can see on my example i was pretty lucky that lightning was huge.
Just keep trying and you will make it. :)
| Camera | Lens | Shutter speed | F-stop | ISO |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Canon 600D | Sigma 17-50mm | 30 sec. | f/10 | 400 |
| Camera | Lens | Shutter speed | F-stop | ISO |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Canon 600D | Sigma 17-50mm | 15 sec. | f/4 | 100 |
| Camera | Lens | Shutter speed | F-stop | ISO |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Canon 600D | Sigma 17-50mm | 30 sec. | f/4 | 100 |
| Camera | Lens | Shutter speed | F-stop | ISO |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Canon 600D | Sigma 17-50mm | 15 sec. | f/4 | 100 |
Thank you for stopping by. Have a nice day/night, depends where you are from. :D
Awesome snaps, I bet it took you some effort to catch these.
Thank you. I was taking photos for about an hour, and i came up with only 4 at the end. :D
Nice photos :)
Thank you. :)
Thanks for this, I'm gonna try it sometime, though we don't have lightning here often. It can be dangerous as well. Excellent photos!
You're welcome. I suggest you to bring umbrella with you, rain can damage your equipment. :)
Četiri ali odlične četiri fotke...bravo.
Ziv bio, hvala. :D
Одлично си прошао, @miroslavrc. Мени је за ову једну требало 160 експозиција:
https://steemit.com/longexposurephotography/@lighteye/stormy-sky-over-banat-en-sr-olujno-nebo-nad-banatom
Hvala veliko. Zaboravio sam da napisem u tekstu nesto, a to je da sam samo za prvu koristio ziznu daljinu 17mm na krop telu, a ove ostale su na 50mm. Preporucujem ti da kada fotografises munje uzmes objektiv od 50mm minimum. :)
То под условом да имам добру олују изнад главе на ограниченом простору. На оној фотографији сам ловио олују која се дешавала далеко преко Дунава :)
You did well to catch these so well. Look forward to more from Serbia. Such a beautiful country.
Thank you, there will be more. :)
Magical photos, they almost look unreal like a video game :)
Thank you. I was at right place at right time. :)