I | MASTER NIKON. Lightning shot

Amazing. Spectacular. Bright. Today we will talk about capturing lightning – one of the most beautiful natural phenomena, which is hunted by amateurs and professionals alike. So how to catch the right moment in the shot and make a great lightning shot? Share their secrets: Sergey Boldenkov, Tatiana Zubkova. Study the lesson and put your new knowledge into practice. Good luck hunting for thunderstorms!

Full review and test shots of the Nikon Z7 mirrorless camera

Camera: Nikon D7100

Aperture: f/8

Shutter speed: 30

ISO: 200

Focal length: 10mm

Safety

The most important thing is to take care of your own safety. You should not take unnecessary risks and shoot lightning in the open space in the midst of a thunderstorm. I have to be honest, I neglected it myself a couple of times. In the photo below I shot a thunderstorm in Perm, while standing on the esplanade in the open air. It was a horrifying experience, and I don’t think I’ll ever do it again.

Camera: Nikon D7100

Aperture: f/8

Shutter speed: 25

ISO: 100

Focal length: 16mm

Time of day

It’s best to shoot lightning at night and in the dark: the bright lightning strikes in the night sky look spectacular and also give a unique light, giving the picture a special atmosphere. Also, because lightning itself is a momentary phenomenon, it is easier to catch it at night because of the slow shutter speed on the camera. With the settings you can safely set the light sensitivity to the minimum and close the aperture to f/8-f/13 depending on the intensity and brightness of the lightning, to avoid over lighting and get a picture of a beautiful lightning, and not a blurry flare. You don’t have to worry about the surroundings not showing up enough with these settings – even a brief flash discharge is usually enough for that.

Camera: Nikon D7100

Aperture: f/8

Shutter speed: 30

ISO SPEED: 100

Focal length: 16mm

Shooting during the day

Taking pictures of a daytime thunderstorm can also be beautiful, especially if you try to match the landscape, and the sky is decorated with a spectacular black cloud. But during the day there are two main points that contradict each other like a “double-edged sword”: as a rule, lightning exposure is always short, and in order to increase it you have to keep the aperture down to high values and even use filters – you should agree that it’s difficult to catch the moment which lasts for just some parts of second, while the shutter speed on the camera goes from 1/50 and higher. And here we should remember about the second nuance: in the daytime the lightning doesn’t contrast to the general landscape as much as at nighttime, and therefore any artificial increase of exposure will cause their fading and inexpressive appearance in the frame. That’s because their discharge times are always the same, but the amount of light entering the sensor during this time interval via a light filter and a closed aperture is very small.

There is only one thing to do: Find the right balance between shutter speed and lightning in the frame, because it all depends on the light in the end, and also on how close the lightning is to the photographer and how much lightning is flashing. But the photographer shall have his own shutter speed too, because practically always you have to shoot in burst mode, wasting hundreds of frames, and it’s good, if the thunder-storm is active and flashes relatively often – in that case chances for a successful shot increase many times.

Camera: Nikon D7100

Aperture: f/8

Shutter speed: 1/80

ISO: 400

Focal length: 22 mm

Another plus for the chance of getting a good shot is when the lightning strikes in series by itself. In that case, you just have to be ready, and when the first one flashes, you press the shutter immediately, and voila – with great probability one of the shots will be successful, like in my case, when I accidentally caught a thunderstorm during a trip to Khokhlovka. There was a big cloud hanging over the village, blocking the sun so much that the shutter speed went up to 1/30 second with an aperture of only f/9.

Camera: Nikon D7100

Aperture: f/9

Shutter speed: 1/30

ISO: 100

Focal length: 16 mm

Another important guideline when shooting with a fast shutter speed: lightning often strikes at a certain interval during a thunderstorm, so you only need to roughly estimate the time and start shooting shortly before the next likely flash. If the lightning is not coming towards you but passes by on the horizon it’s better to frame the shot beforehand in such a way that it goes from one side of the frame to the other together with the lightning. In further processing it allows you to combine several shots in one picture, so to apply so called multiple exposure. This function is available in some cameras, and if you have just such a camera you can do something simpler and use it right during shooting to combine all the lightning into a single frame.

Briefly about choosing a lens

Any wide angle lens with focal length from 20-24mm 35mm equivalent is good enough to bring the closest lightning and the landscape into the frame.

Camera: Nikon D7100

Aperture: f/9

Shutter speed: 1/3

ISO SPEED: 100

Focal length: 16 mm

Again about shooting parameters

The general settings on the camera are as follows: We shoot night lightning with the aperture closed to at least f/8-f/9 and the ISO set to minimum, the shutter speed is usually not more than 30 seconds, or more if you want to catch in the frame as many discharges as possible. Even if the scene is completely dark, a bright flash of lightning will “manifest” it, just like a flash on a camera. The exception is only the lightning which strikes weakly or too far away. In that case do the following: if the lightning appears well in the frame and the landscape is not beautiful – increase the shutter speed, but if the lightning looks dull and the landscape is poor – increase the ISO.

When shooting during the day the parameters are adjusted individually, but the shutter speed should be at least 1/60-1/80 seconds and the lightning should be bright and in good contrast. With a faster shutter speed catching lightning in the frame will be very difficult, and with its artificial enhancement and by any means – with a light filter or closed aperture lightning will get dimmer and ugly.

Camera: Nikon D7100

Aperture: f/6.3

Shutter speed: 0.8

ISO: 200

Focal length: 10 mm

What to bring

Like a tripod, an umbrella in our case is a must, because we don’t want to get wet in the rain with our camera, especially at night. And even if it rains a little bit without causing discomfort, and your camera has an excellent moisture protection, at night the slightest drop on the light filter and especially on the unprotected lens will give unwanted highlights on the photo. Also at night a flashlight comes in handy – in some cases it can beautifully illuminate the foreground, especially if the thunderstorm is too far away and the lightning flashes do not illuminate it.

Composition

Try to frame the shot with a subject, so it doesn’t look “empty” with just lightning against the sky, because the success of the shot is half of what it’s cracked up to be. I don’t like to follow any rules like “golden ratio” or “rule of thirds”, I just compose my shots the way I like them, without thinking about it.

Camera: Nikon D7100

Aperture: f/9

Exposure: 4

ISO: 100

Focal length: 16 mm

Camera: Nikon D7100

Aperture: f/8

Shutter speed: 1/5

ISO: 125

Focal length: 16 mm

Have a nice shot everyone!”

Tatiana Zubkova

“Photography has always been an integral part of my life since my childhood, from the era of film cameras and the magic of developing film in a bathtub. And it has always been a way for me to see the world in a different way, as well as to show my own perspective on familiar things.

In 2008, I took a special course in photojournalism at the Graduate School of Journalism of the Lomonosov New York State University, and then went on to take the second one. m.v. I had the privilege to listen to the lessons of such photography greats as Vladimir Yuryevich Vyatkin, Sergey Vladimirovich Shakhidzhanyan, Grigory Mikhailovich Chudakov, Dmitry Abramovich Donskoy and many others, at the Lomonosov New York State University. At the moment I’m doing photography as an amateur, devoting time to my main profession of biology. However, photography still occupies a significant place in my life, as a tool for learning about reality and presenting my own view of it.

Camera: Nikon D90

Aperture: f/9

Shutter speed: 30

ISO: 200

Focal length: 28 mm

In the gamut of emotions from primal fear of the violent elements to admiration for the power of nature, such atmospheric phenomenon as thunderstorms can hardly leave anyone indifferent. For photographers thunderstorm is a phenomenon that can decorate their portfolio and give valuable experience of shooting in specific conditions. But it requires preparation and planning to get a quality shot.

Safety

Lightning is not only beautiful, but also dangerous: these powerful electrical discharges carry high voltages, hundreds of thousands of amperes and very high temperatures, up to 25,000 degrees Celsius. So if you are planning on taking pictures of lightning, check the safety guidelines on the EMERCOM website for details.

Planning. Choosing Your Point of View

Certainly, a demanding photographer prepares for any of his photos, but thunderstorms and lightning photography require even more effort to prepare and plan, because this atmospheric phenomenon is quite extensive and unpredictable in its dynamics.

Probably the most important planning factor is the choice of shooting location. The most impressive photos of lightning come from points far away from the epicenter of the thunderstorm itself, allowing you to see the thundercloud from the side, as if in profile, with the lightning “piercing” to the ground.

Ideally if you have a car and the willingness to rush out at any convenient moment to go get the lightning. That said, it would be very helpful to be confident in your surroundings and know the most advantageous landscape shooting points. My advice: be inquisitive during your daily moves around your homeland, make a note of the spots which might be interesting for shooting in conditions of different natural phenomena.

Time of shooting

To be able to shoot anything, it’s essential to learn the subject, its behavior, its nature, its essence. It allows you to plan your photography more precisely.

So, it is important to understand that thunderstorms with lightning is a phenomenon that occurs in the vast majority of cases only in the warm season. This knowledge, coupled with your understanding of cloud types can give you an advantage in planning your lightning photography. Tracking weather forecasts also helps a lot.

Besides, because of quite specific requirements to shooting parameters as I am going to tell below it is very difficult to shoot lightning during the day. Therefore it is necessary to be ready for evening or even night shooting in pursuit of a valuable shot.

Frame construction

So you are there. In the right place at the right time. There is a theater of nature raging on the horizon in front of you, with lightning striking the sky and a puff of thunderstorm wind. If one wants to get the maximum number of lightning in the frame you should choose the area of their maximum activity according to observations.

Probably the artistic task will demand getting a picture of a single lightning anyway it’s necessary to spend some time observing a certain thunder-storm in order to understand its character and feel its peculiarities. But you shouldn’t take too much time with observations, because thunderstorms are very dynamic and impetuous phenomena.

Shooting technique

To guess at what moment the lightning will strike the sky with a beautiful arrow is quite impossible. So when taking pictures of lightning it is recommended to use slow shutter speeds. And, therefore, for long exposures up to 30 seconds you will definitely need a tripod. My preference for lightning is to use wide angle lenses for better coverage.

So, we set the maximum shutter speed in manual mode and experimentally adjust ISO and aperture value accordingly. It is also important to set the self-timer mode or use the remote self-timer in order to avoid camera oscillation in order to get a clear shot.

And then… Catching lightning in the frame!”