There are several different ways to get the job done. The simplest is to set your camera to manual mode and auto focus off. Focus your lens to infinity. You will need a very sturdy tripod setup. You will have to play with the cameras setting to see what works best. Here's some explanation of each setting. ISO - Depending on what you are looking for, you will need to set your ISO accordingly. The ISO represents the sensor sensitivity. The lower the number less sensitive to light it is. That means you will need longer exposures to do night photography. The benefit to lower ISO is that it will produce a sharper image. You can raise the ISO to let more light in and shorten the shutter speed, but this will lower the image quality. There's some fancy formula for this, but I usually just play around with it until I get the desired results. Shutter Speed - You can manually set your shutter speed to specific lengths. When taking starscapes, keep in mind that the earth rotation will turn your stars into lines if the shutter speed is too long. Roughly 20-25 seconds is about the limit before you start notice the streaking. A combination of the right ISO and the right shutter speed can give you some great pictures. Another way to do it is to use a shutter release. If you are trying to photograph something like lightning, this can be a great way to capture the shot. Point your camera in the direction of the storm and press the shutter release and hold it until you get a strike of lightning then release it. It will take the picture, and will expose the sensor to all the light it absorbed. This can get some amazing photos. Lens - It's important to use the correct lens for the task. For astrophotography, you will generally want some type of wide angle lens so that you can capture a large portion of the sky. Also, you will want a lens with as low an F-Stop as possible. The F-Stop is basically the aperture or the size of the opening in the lens. The lower the number, the larger the opening and the more the light it lets in. Example. an F-2.8 lets in way more light than an F5.6 lens. There's a lot more to it than that, but just know that the lower the number, the better for astrophotography. And remember to set the lens focus to infinity to make sure the stars are sharp. There are so many amazing things your camera will do with night time/ light photography if you understand how it works and what you need to do to get the result you are looking for.
Here's a couple from my first attempts at lightning. Here's one of some stars and some backlit clouds. Sent from my LG-D850 using Tapatalk
Great photo's sky! My wife and I tried to get some lighting shots while we were at the beach last week. Somehow we missed every single one.... Not sure how, I was pretty sure we captured a couple. Keep them coming!
Were you using the bulb function on the camera? It's pretty easy with a shutter release and bulb function. Just hold down the shutter button until you get a strike in the frame and then release it. Generally you don't want to hold much longer than 30-45 seconds, depending on how dark and how much light is out. A wide angle lens can also really help, since you just never know where the lighting will strike. I really enjoy it, I just haven't found much time to get out and do it.
I'm not sure haha. I've been using my camera in manual mode; I turn the shutter speed up as fast as I can with the lowest possible aperture. After that I then turn the processor over to "continuous high speed" shots. Then I basically do what you said, hold my remote trigger down until I get a lightening bolt in the frame. Is this what you're talking about? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I feel like I can answer this one. Bulb mode is a very slow shutter speed. Essentially it can go to infinity (or until your battery dies) As long as the shutter release button is held down the camera will be letting light through for the picture. If your remote trigger has a locked position it will work fairly well for this, as the shutter release has to be held down. I may have not explained that the greatest, but a quick google search would probably get you some answers that make more sense.
I gotcha. I shoot that way at night. Wouldn't this make for a really over exposed picture if shot during the day? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
No, you actually want a single long exposure. Your camera will either have a bulb function or you can set your shutter speed to something like 30 seconds. The bulb works the best because you are controlling the amount of time for each exposure. You really need a shutter release to do this effectively because every time you touch the button on the camera, you introduce some movement. The third picture I have kinda of illustrates how the camera works. I would guess I had the shutter open for close to 30 seconds before I finally got the strike. Then I allowed the shutter to close. All the available light the the sensor absorbed during that 30 second exposure is shown. That is why the barn and the clouds are illuminated. If you try and get a flash of lighting with a short exposure, you might get lucky, but all you would get is just the lighting flash, and nothing else. Those pictures I posed above aren't that great because I had an issue with my focal point. You want to make sure you focus out to infinity to make sure you get the lighting strike in focus.
Okay I'm understanding now. I shoot that way in pitch black. We had a storm pass over during the afternoon, it was really something. It had a lot of lightening in it but just wasn't able to close the deal! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I see, yeah it would overexpose to use this method during the daylight, unless you ran your F-stop way up, set your ISO at the lowest possible and possibly used some type of ND filter to filter out the extra light. During the daytime, a lighting trigger would be the best option. I don't own one, but I'd really like to get one. They actually can sense the lighting just ahead of the actual strike and take a picture.
Now that lightening trigger would be awesome! I bet it costs a pretty penny tho. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Seriously? That's not bad at all. Lightening, in my opinion, can produce some of the best photos. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I agree. It's also an exciting subject to photograph. Here's one that I've been considering. http://www.mkcontrols.com/order/
