Shooting lightning may seem like an advanced technique for beginners. In fact, as long as you master a little skill and practice a lot, there will always be an excellent lightning photo that belongs to you! Let’s take a brief look at how to shoot lightning!
Table of Contents
1. Pay Attention to Safety
To take lightning photos, the first point is to pay attention to safety. Don’t stand under lightning range, or on high ground, or you may lose your life!
Take care of your own safety first
2. Long Exposure
Lightning occurs randomly and there is no rule, so it is impossible to press the shutter when you see lightning. To fix this, we’ll make long exposures with the following settings:
Set up a tripod
Adjust the camera to B shutter/T shutter in manual mode.
Set the ISO as low as possible, such as ISO100 or 200.
Adjust the aperture according to the distance of the lightning, f/5.6 for far lightning, f/8 for medium distance, f/11 for close, and you will know how much aperture to use after taking a few shots.
Set the focus to manual focus and focus at infinity.
When shooting, aim the lens at the place where lightning is expected (including the foreground/background), open the B shutter/T shutter, and wait for the lightning to appear.
Remember to calculate the best exposure time yourself if there are lights in the foreground/background, not too long or too short.
You need to set the ISO to the lowest level when shooting
3.Foreground/Background Coordination
If only lightning is included, the photo may become too monotonous. At this time, we can add foreground or background to the photo to make the photo more shocking! Examples of foreground/background are streets at night, beaches by the sea, landmark buildings, etc.
Having buildings in the foreground can make the photo more impactful.
The street at night can also be used as a foreground
4. Adjust the White Balance
Just like shooting night scenes, we can add color to the night sky by adjusting the white balance. Colors like purple, blue, etc. can add atmosphere to your photos. Of course, you can adjust the white balance when you get home after shooting RAW files.
Make photos purple by adjusting white balance
Turn down the white balance for a cool-toned photo
5. Multiple Exposures
To capture multiple lightning bolts into the same photo, we can use the camera’s multiple exposure feature. Expose twice in the same photo, so you can capture lightning in different positions!
Multiple exposures can capture lightning in different locations
Multiple exposures to capture multiple lightning bolts
Lightning does not appear often, and we need to pay more attention to some safe places where lightning may be photographed on weekdays. If lightning strikes, grab your camera and tripod and go! Another point, lightning is often followed by rain. Don’t forget to waterproof the camera when shooting, and clean it and put it in a moisture-proof box for maintenance afterwards.