i have *successfully* captured a lightning streak on photo at last! it happened this afternoon during a thunderstorm (of course). for the 20something shots i took (not considering the *failed* shots i took in the past), i got only 1 shot with a streak on it. so, there. at long last, i captured one of His great works on photo. i wonder why He made them so hard to photograph. hm... anyway, i'm so happy right now, i want to share this with anyone who's interested.
you might have read somewhere that lightning photography normally uses long exposures. unless you are truly good at timing and you can capture a streak using a fast shutter speed. hehe... for long exposures, you will be needing a tripod, or anything you can put your camera on. be sure that the tripod or the thing that your camera rests on is stable and sturdy because the wind might get too strong. one might not be so sure. set the focus to infinity to focus everything in the frame. use a small aperture (large f-value) especially when you are shooting during daytime, so as not to let too much light in. take some test shots to determine which shutter speed to use w/o overexposing the shot. it would be better (i think) to use a slow shutter speed as this will increase your chance to capture a streak if not multiple streaks. during nighttime, you can set the shutter speed to 30s or slower since you will have less problems of overexposure and you have a good chance of capturing them. but during daytime, overexposure is a problem. you may want to use a low ISO setting to reduce sensitivity to light. mine was ISO 50. you may want to shift to -2.0EV as this will reduce the exposure to a few f-stops if i'm not mistaken. also, you may want to use f-stop-reducing filters. my camera has a built-in nd filter and with it, i was able to get 3-5s of shutter speed w/o overexposing. but i also used my pl filter to further reduce the f-stop and i was able to get 5-8s of exposure. good enough (i think). but settings on my camera may differ w/ the settings on other cameras. remember, what we want to achieve is a slow shutter speed to increase our chance in capturing a lightning streak. by the way, if your camera has a 2- or 3-second timer, use it so as not to get a blurry shot caused by the movement when pressing the shutter.
lightning photography is really hard work and takes a LOT of patience. but it really is worth it and fulfilling. ^_^ fire away!
you might have read somewhere that lightning photography normally uses long exposures. unless you are truly good at timing and you can capture a streak using a fast shutter speed. hehe... for long exposures, you will be needing a tripod, or anything you can put your camera on. be sure that the tripod or the thing that your camera rests on is stable and sturdy because the wind might get too strong. one might not be so sure. set the focus to infinity to focus everything in the frame. use a small aperture (large f-value) especially when you are shooting during daytime, so as not to let too much light in. take some test shots to determine which shutter speed to use w/o overexposing the shot. it would be better (i think) to use a slow shutter speed as this will increase your chance to capture a streak if not multiple streaks. during nighttime, you can set the shutter speed to 30s or slower since you will have less problems of overexposure and you have a good chance of capturing them. but during daytime, overexposure is a problem. you may want to use a low ISO setting to reduce sensitivity to light. mine was ISO 50. you may want to shift to -2.0EV as this will reduce the exposure to a few f-stops if i'm not mistaken. also, you may want to use f-stop-reducing filters. my camera has a built-in nd filter and with it, i was able to get 3-5s of shutter speed w/o overexposing. but i also used my pl filter to further reduce the f-stop and i was able to get 5-8s of exposure. good enough (i think). but settings on my camera may differ w/ the settings on other cameras. remember, what we want to achieve is a slow shutter speed to increase our chance in capturing a lightning streak. by the way, if your camera has a 2- or 3-second timer, use it so as not to get a blurry shot caused by the movement when pressing the shutter.
lightning photography is really hard work and takes a LOT of patience. but it really is worth it and fulfilling. ^_^ fire away!
2 comments:
post na lang din your pics here! :D
gusto ko kasi parang album/gallery type kaya sa flickr o y!photos na lang. [=
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