How to Capture Lightning in a Photograph
Capturing lightning strikes in a photograph needs a lot of patience and luck. You need to be fast enough to press the shutter button at the right moment. Since the duration of a single strike is a zillion faster than any human reflex, it is pretty much a hit and miss thing. It took me more than a hundred frames before I was able to get decent one. The idea is to keep your shutter open just before they strike. Did I mention you need to have a lot of patience and luck? 
Here’s how i took this shot…
- Mounted my camera (Canon EOS 50D w/ a Canon EF 100mm prime lens) on a tripod
- Put camera in Manual Mode with the following settings:
Arpeture: f2.8
Shutter speed: 2 seconds
ISO: 100
(You have to consider the available ambient light and you have to remember that lightning strikes vary in intensity so just experiment with your settings until you get the right mix.)
- Put lens in Manual Focus Mode and focus at a distant point on the horizon so it’s set to infinity. In this photo I focused on the distant buildings.
(By locking lens in perfect infinity focus, the lightning will always be sharp and the camera won’t hunt if it’s pointed at an empty sky as it would if it were left in Auto Focus.)
- I used remote cable release in order to eliminate camera shake.
- Clicked away until I got a blog-worthy shot.
If anyone has some more tips on shooting lightning, please feel free to share them on the “Leave a Reply” portion below.
this is really a good write up,i am also learning new techniques and this will help me a lot.
i am going to buy Nikon D5000 in tis month,will apply your suggested ways with that
good luck on your planned purchase. you will not regret it:)
great shot! truly, worth the wait until you capture that perfect strike right?
btw, any reco on what dslr to buy
thank you bong. i got my canon eos 50d last nov. 08 and i have been happy with it so far. all the photos on this blog, except for the whaleshark entry, were all taken with my eos 50d.
why don’t you just set it to a slow shutter speed at night, something like 60 seconds,.. (I wouldn’t know if it has that)
to capture 2 or more lightning bolts? Would it look more artistic too? Just a thought…
The lightning also looks fake.
hi migz. i did try longer exposures but the wind started to pick up and my camera started moving. i was able to capture multiple strikes but there was a bit of a blur because of the shake caused by the wind. this is actually the only usable frame i have. it looks fake maybe because the sky is a bit magentaish. that’s because i have set my white balance on auto. i should have set it manually,more on the cooler side. but there will always be another thunderstorm. i hope i can get better shots next time.
thanks for dropping by my blog.
Thanks for that info. i am still trying to convince my self to buy a dslr myself, but a lot of things still outweigh my choice
to do so. thanks again
nice one.. try to catch me on chat one day and i’ll teach u another teknik, even on other subject.
Your patience paid off with a lucky (lightning) strike! Nice one, Siomai!
I’ve tried so many time to capture lightning, but I’ve been disappointed.thanks for the tips. baguhan plang ako
wow thanks for the tip! would love to try to shoot lighting one of these days, sana more rain!