Forgive me readers, for I have sinned. It has been 39 days since my last submission. Though nothing has been submitted recently, I have kept shooting.
A couple of weeks ago I had the chance to go to New Orleans to see the wonderful comedy of Off Off Broadzway. While I was there I ventured out with my camera a bit and shot a little with my camera phone (the square photos).
Shot these Sunday night and forgot about them the past few days. Oops.
Last night I had the opportunity to give a five minute presentation about lightning photography at Ignite Chicago hosted by Catalyst Ranch.
Ignite is a rapid-fire presentation event about a variety of subjects and it’s coordinated with other major cities around the world. There were a total of ten speakers. My topic was “Bottled Lightning in a Snap” and it discussed my past failings with lightning photography, what I learned, then sharing that with the audience so they could learn from my mistakes.
The majority of the time I shy away from the technical details of photography and focus mainly on the event or mood of the photograph (or, as is more often the case, I seldom say anything about the piece).
In order to create lightning photographs on your own, you need to make sure you have a camera with manual settings, a tripod, a way to keep your camera dry, and a open vantage point to capture lightning. Your camera should allow you to adjust the aperture, the shutter speed, the ISO, and if you’re feeling adventurous, the color balance.
If you don’t know what those four technical details are and how they relate to photography, I’ve linked them to Wikipedia articles that will give you a more in-depth knowledge of the topic. To put it basically, however, the aperture controls the amount of light coming into the camera; the shutter controls how long the light enters the camera; the ISO determines how sensitive the camera will be to the light; and the color balance controls the mood of the light (whether it will be more yellow or more blue).
In this first lightning photograph I was able to get this result by having the following settings: Aperture (f/13), Shutter (15 seconds), ISO (200), Color Balance (2500k) and I used a 35mm lens. With the longer shutter speed I was able to capture multiple lightning bolts that occurred moments apart. The small aperture allowed only a small amount of light in at a time allowing me to make a longer photograph, have a sharper image, and allow the clouds to blur nicely.
In this photograph the setting were: Aperture (f/16), Shutter (30 seconds), ISO (200), Color Balance (2500k) and I used a 85mm lens.
In this photograph the setting were: Aperture (f/16), Shutter (30 seconds), ISO (200), Color Balance (2500k) and I used a 85mm lens. At this point I was about to give up. The weather was starting to get very foggy and I could barely see. Because I kept shooting and didn’t give up, I was able to get a shot that looks pretty unique and one I was excited to make.
Other Notes: You’ll want to avoid touching the camera as little as possible when taking the photograph because it will degrade the image quality and cause it to blur. If you don’t have a remote for your camera, set the timer for two seconds. That’ll give you enough time to get your hands away from the camera body. If you have the ability, set your camera focus manually. You’ll want to set the focus to infinity.
Last Note: I’d like to thank Nick Ulivieri for letting me use his photograph during my presentation. Make sure to check out his site for another perspective on lightning photography (and awesome photographs!).