First Lightning Capture

[W. Grant Dade]

I just wanted to share my first successful lightning attempt as we had a few elevated thunderstorms move through East Texas Saturday night. I might have another chance tonight.

Thanks

[Richard Dickson]

Let me be the first to say congratulations and very nice work! They look great. It really is a thrill when you get your first captures. I struggled a long time for mine and now lightning shots have become a priority of mine. Keep up the good work.

[Jim Saueressig]

If that is your starting photos then you are on the right path :), Nice captures.

[Karla Dorman]

WOW. AWESOME captures! Lightning, my favorite element of Storm. Too bad mine aren't as good as these, but I'll keep trying! LOL Well done!

[Maggie Kahman]

I remember my first Lightning picture. It was a video still of a BEAUTIFUL CG, which at the time was the only way i could capture lightning. Very nice pictures, and i wish you many more!

[Angie Norris]

Congrats on those sweet shots!! Those are awesome! I'm still practicing lightning captures...most of mine have been CGs and pure luck so far.

[Gerrit Gulden]

excellent captures man. The pictures look great and the settings you used were ideal for lightning. Wished I could have thunderstorms during this part of the year, unfortunately I live in the Mountains where it is all snow till May/June. Cant wait for summer tho.

take care....

-gerrit

[Jeremy Jones]

My first lightning strike looked nowhere near this good!! You are definitely on the right path!!

Little tip: When you are processing the NEG. try and bump down the Exposure value
just a little bit, and you will recover a little bit more of the branching in the strike.

Pretty soon you will have hundreds of Lightning images on your hard drive!!

Well done

[Patrick Martin]

Great pics! My first ones were not this good either. Do you mind sharing what camera, lense (if applicable), and settings you used?

[W. Grant Dade]

Thanks for all the nice comments.

I have a Canon EOS with the 18-55mm kit lens. Had it as wide as it would go. f/3.5 ISO 100 and 20 second sutter speed(not sure if that is what you call it?).

[John Olexa]

Great work!! Well done!! :) :)

[Tyler Burg]

Nice first images! I wish my first ones were that good! I'd recommend stopping your aperture to 7.1 or f/9, this way those CG won't get over exposed, but I guess its all relative.

Great work

[Jim Saueressig]

Like he said. :) If it was close they would have burned out bad, I have had to shoot as tight as 16-20ish when it was real close. Only your distant stuff will work that opened up.

Use the bulb setting and try to get a single strike per shot. If you are out in the country and very dark you could leave her open for a minute or two at ISO 100 with good results. Just try to keep checking on your shots to see how they look. I do not use NR for lightning so I use only ISO 100 for all but very distant stuff.

Nice first images! I wish my first ones were that good! I'd recommend stopping your aperture to 7.1 or f/9, this way those CG won't get over exposed, but I guess its all relative.


I have a Canon EOS with the 18-55mm kit lens. Had it as wide as it would go. f/3.5 ISO 100 and 20 second sutter speed(not sure if that is what you call it?).

[Laura Duchesne]

Congrats on your first lightning shots - it looks like you already have a knack for it! Gotta love the days of digital photography though... you can delete the ones that don't turn out and continuously check your pictures after you shoot them to see how it worked out. I remember ruining two rolls of film one year shooting lightning over Lake Huron... had I taken OFF the polarizing filter, maybe something would have shown up lol.

I bet you are addicted! I know I am!

[W. Grant Dade]

Thanks for the tips. Now I know why a few of my shoots did not turn out so well. I am still learning and yes, this is very addictive!!! I can't wait until the next storm. Atmosphere was too capped over East Texas this morning.

[Chris Hayes]

Congratulations on such good pictures! Very good for a firstimer at that aspect of the storm chasing hobby. What kind of camera do you use? When I was first doing lightning photography I was using a 35mm SLR. I didnt know much about aperature and I would randomly chage it between 4.5 and 8 and inbetween. Needless to say the first couple shots I got werent that great, but I kept them anyhow because they were my first.
http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s242/t80tank/img032.jpg
http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s242/t80tank/img033.jpg
http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s242/t80tank/img034.jpg

These pictures here are some I took sometime after the first set. Quite a bit better, but I got lucky with them because I was still randomly picking an aperature to use.
http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s242/t80tank/39.jpg
http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s242/t80tank/38.jpg
http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s242/t80tank/37.jpg

Now the grand finale. These are just three of the over 100 I took in June of last year near Salina Kansas. Digital makes lightning photography so much easier :)

http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s242/t80tank/June260844.jpg
http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s242/t80tank/June260854.jpg
http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s242/t80tank/IMG_0335.jpg

Keep up the good work!

[Andrea Griffa]

Nice job,man! Very good stuff to be the first shot.

[Chris Kennedy]

Nice shots, I remember my first lightning shots, I wanted to show the entire world them lol

[Susan Strom]

Congratulations!

I drove 5 hours for my first. I get misty thinking about it LOL

[Gaetan Cormier]

Excellent work on these first lightning attemp, keep up the good work!

[PFranklin]

Congrats on your first lightning shots. I do need to warn you they are addictive. I captured my first about 3 years ago and have been hooked every since. The last time I had a good lightning shoot I was giggling like a little kid every time they showed up on the LCD.