{"id":5655,"date":"2025-08-15T14:51:49","date_gmt":"2025-08-15T19:51:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/siskinphoto.com\/blog\/?p=5655"},"modified":"2025-09-21T17:33:58","modified_gmt":"2025-09-21T22:33:58","slug":"lightning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/siskinphoto.com\/blog\/?p=5655","title":{"rendered":"LIGHTNING!!"},"content":{"rendered":"

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When I got out to New Mexico I didn\u2019t realize what a wonderful place it is to photograph lightning. In order to make good lightning photos you need a couple of things: first you need a storm with frequent bolts of lightning. It\u2019s just as important that the storm is in the right place, if it\u2019s too far away you don\u2019t get good images and if it\u2019s too close you should seek safety. My house was hit by lightning in one storm, very unpleasant. You also need a camera which can take long exposures, and you need a good tripod. It helps if you can keep yourself and the camera out of the rain. There are other considerations, but if you are going to try it, please stay safe!<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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These images are from several storms. I think I used the Nikon D-850 for most of the images. I usually use a shutter speed of about 20 seconds, which enables me to get multiple bolts in some of the images. I\u2019ve used several lenses, particularly my Nikkor 35mm f2.8, Nikkor 85 f1.8 and Nikkor 55 f1.2. These are all manual focus lenses. If you are going to use an auto focus lens you\u2019ll want to keep it set at infinity, at least if the storm is at a safe distance. I try to set the aperture and ISO so that the image is very dark without any lightning, around 3 stops under exposed. Not only will the lightning open up the exposure, but you\u2019ll often get sheet lightning. Sheet lightning illuminates the whole sky but doesn\u2019t have any lightning bolts, so it doesn\u2019t make really dramatic pictures. If you have a very fast lens, like the 55 f1.2 it\u2019s much easier to frame your images, with slower lenses, I have to frame after I see a test image on the camera back.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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I know there are now lightning triggers. I doubt these would work well with the mechanical shutter on my D-850, the shutter is too slow. If you are working with a mirrorless camera or using the electronic shutter on the D-850 they might work. However, you\u2019re unlikely to get multiple lightning bolts in the same picture. The triggers aren\u2019t inexpensive. The D-850 takes quite a while to process the images from the long exposures, so I often miss shots that would have been good. Also, I use the self-timer when I shoot on the tripod to reduce vibration, which means additional time when the camera isn\u2019t actually taking a picture. I shoot a lot of pictures in a storm and get a few good ones. I concentrate on the successful pictures and forget about the ones I miss.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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Since the camera can\u2019t compensate for the changing exposure while the shutter is open most of the shots are not exposed perfectly. I use Adobe Camera Raw and Adobe Photoshop to perfect my images. If you are going to photograph lightning you should expect to do some work in post-production. I shoot all my images in RAW and full bit depth (14 bit on my camera) to allow me the greatest opportunity to create dramatic images.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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Over the years I\u2019ve mentioned that images in my blog can be purchased, frankly that doesn\u2019t happen. If you\u2019d like to get one of these images, please e-mail me and we can make suitable arrangements. John@siskinphoto.com<\/a>. Thanks for your attention<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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Just one more. I made this using a technique that adds the color chanels from seperate images. Chck out this blog post for more information: https:\/\/siskinphoto.com\/blog\/?p=5744<\/a><\/p>\n

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Lightning<\/p><\/div>\n

A few links<\/p>\n

Siskinphoto.Home<\/a><\/p>\n

Introduction Page<\/a><\/p>\n

Monument Valley<\/a><\/p>\n

Taos Pueblo<\/a><\/p>\n

Night Sky<\/a><\/p>\n

Lightning<\/a><\/p>\n

Flowers<\/a><\/p>\n

Monastery Road<\/a><\/p>\n

Petroglyphs<\/a><\/p>\n

Rock<\/a><\/p>\n

Ice and Snow<\/a><\/p>\n

Tsankawi<\/a><\/p>\n

Sugarite Campground<\/a><\/p>\n

Churchs<\/a><\/p>\n

El Morro National Monument<\/a><\/p>\n

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I did a large show when I was still in Indianapolis called Courting Chaos<\/a>. The link will take you to the pages which describe the work and its evolution. These images are, well, chaotic and many of them are nudes. I hope you\u2019ll find it interesting.<\/p>\n

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Links to my books, still available at Amazon!<\/p>\n