One of the aspects of outdoor photography that I really enjoy is the ability to create a visual record and often highly artistic imagery of awe-inspiring natural events. It takes perseverance, knowledge of the natural world, timing and a lot of luck to be in the right place to photograph an amazing atmospheric event or an exciting display of wildlife. If you do manage to be in the right place at the right time, then you need to be ready to execute the correct photographic techniques to properly capture the moment.
I find that lightning is one of the most awesome natural phenomena to photograph. When bolts of lightning are frozen in time on camera we see everything that is happening during that microsecond flash of light, from the delicate structure of the branching current to the glowing cloud covered sky and illuminated landscape. In some areas of the Midwest and South good lightning storms are a regular summer occurrence, but here in the Pacific Northwest they can be few and far between and hard to predict.
When a good lightning storm does present itself around here the first trick is to be in the right location. Shots of lightning in an empty cloudy sky are OK, but they will be much enhanced if there is something else in the composition to add scale and drama. Try to find a location that has water in the foreground for a reflection, a cityscape or silhouettes of trees or mountains. It is important to be fairly close to the lightning so that it fills a substantial portion of the sky. Miniature bolts many miles off on the horizon are generally underwhelming and don’t properly illuminate the foreground. On the other hand, it isn’t wise to be directly in the path of the lightning for obvious safety reasons. I find a good balance of proximity and safety when I am able to position myself about one to three miles from where the lightning is striking, and I’m always ready to jump in the car and drive away if it gets too close.
The second trick is to know the right technique to capture the show. I use essentially the same technique shooting lightning as I do fireworks. It is also a similar technique to using a handheld flash to walk around and illuminate foreground objects, like tents, in a night shot. In effect, lightning acts as a giant, unpredictable fill flash. With a lightning sensor on your camera to trigger the shutter it is possible to shoot lightning when the sky is less than completely dark and long exposures are not possible, but for shooting lightning without one it should be almost entirely dark. This enables you to leave your shutter open for as long as you need to capture several strikes without the danger of overexposing the scene. Find your location, set up your camera on a tripod and set it to shoot on the Bulb setting (this enables you to use a cable release to keep the shutter open for as long as you want). If your camera doesn’t have a Bulb setting, then set it to the longest exposure setting it has (probably 30 seconds) and hope that’s good enough. Then close the aperture down (f/11 or smaller) to get a good depth of field and to allow even longer exposure times. In the dark your auto focus won’t work so you will need to manually set the focus. If you can’t see enough to focus set the focal length to infinity and then back it off a small amount to make sure that the middle-foreground is still sharp. Now open the shutter and wait for several lighting strikes before closing it. In a storm with intense lightning you might get several strikes in less than a minute. For the images on this page the lightning was spaced out quite a bit so I had to leave the shutter open for six to eight minutes to capture several bolts. If you are shooting several minute exposures with a digital camera set it to the lowest ISO and use any noise reduction functions it may have to reduce the digital noise that comes with long digital exposures.
Experiencing the power and mystery of a lighting storm is exhilarating. Photographing it can freeze the experience in time and produce some amazing, all natural pyrotechnic art. Have fun and be safe.
