Lightning Photography

We had a nice light show in Toronto on Sunday night and of course Tito, “Pedro” and I were out there chasing it around. Around 1am/Markham we finally gave it a break and came home but not until getting some great shots ;o)

Tips for shooting lightning:

1. Get a remote release for your camera.
2. Get a reasonably wide angle lens with a reasonably open f-stop (4.0 won’t do – I use Canon’s 28mm prime f 2.8)
3. Set the white balance to tungsten (this is purely up to your taste, but I like the super blues and purples this gives me)
4. Set the ISO as low as it will go (you’re already contending with low light, no need to make the noise factor worse)
5. I like to use a shutter speed of around 2-3 seconds. I set the camera mode to continuous shooting and lock the remote shutter release
6. Relax, enjoy the lightshow and occasionally get to yell “I think I got that one!”

The remote saves you from having to man the shutter button and leaves you free to enjoy the display instead of worrying about your camera. Keep an extra battery and card handy in case you need to swap out. Think of it as cruise control for your camera, it certainly beats trying to ‘anticipate’ the lightning.

Oh, and bring bug spray ;o)