Lightning

Enter your search terms

Web Site Submit search form

Please support this site by buying your photo gear from one of our sponsors: 

• Downloads
• Book Store
• Tutorials
• Reviews

[Jazzy]

I can't believe no one has posted pictures of lightning yet...looks like I'm the first!  Sveeet! 

One thing Arizona has in a plenty around monsoon season - LIGHTNING!



















Mental note - it's pretty damn hard to *focus* on lightning!  I'll have to play with my manual settings & try and figure it out so I can do night shots like this w/o as much trial and *error*.

[sduford]

Wow, god work Jazzy. Those are incredibly clear lightning shots, compeltely free of cloud. Neat.

Tell us about your technique!

[FMGreen]

You rule! These are awesome!

[epatt250]

Excellent work!

[mokai]

Those are some incredible lightning shots..I like how you can see it in the hood of the car in the last one..Well done..I hardly ever see lighting around here..

[evomotion]

These are incredible.  I was watching an incredible lightening storm last night with no clouds in front of me...and no camera in hand.  You caught them perfectly...love the ghost car shadow.

[Boxxerace]

Speaking of lightning, we had some very rare thunderstorm / lightning activity last night.  Somewhere near 3000 strikes in our region overnight.   I went out and shot around midnight, but I did not come out with anything successful.   

I'd like to know what makes a really killer lightning shot.   

[evomotion]

I think that sitting on top of a flag pole in a lightening storm going for that photo challenge shot would make for a quick "killer" lightening shot...

kids dont try this at home. 

[Jazzy]

Well - the technique is fairly simple - I just crank the camera to 100 iso, F4 & hold down the shutter until something happens.  Some of the later shots, I moved to the other side of my house & the lightning was at a better angle / closer and I had to stop it down to about F8 to keep it from overexposing.  I was also using my 24-105 lens, which is really nice, but I think my 10-20 would have caught some of the shots better - the lightning is really *big* here and ya gots to have the wide angle for some of it.  The main thing I was struggling with was trying to ascertain if I had it focused right...hard to tell on the 2.5" screen, even when you zoom in.  I need to do some testing during the day to figure out where I want the focus for that range so I just know where to set it when doing that stuff in full manual in the dark.

The lightning storms here are what really make it work though - the rain comes in tight bunches moving across the desert so you can see the lightning coming and going for a good while without much in the way.  What I really want is to get some shots of the mountains at sunset with lightning - I saw that last week driving home and it was absolutely incredible - but same as Evo - no camera in hand.  There was a redish glow all along the mountain tops - the sunset peaking in under the thunderheads - and purple/blue lightning all across the mountain peaks - like I said - incredible...maybe I'll get a shot of *that* some day.  It would be sweet.

[FMGreen]

Jazzy, what you're describing is totally making me wish I lived in your neck of the woods...

...however, forecasts like this make me very glad I *don't* live there:

[Jazzy]

I don't live in Pheonix dude - they're suckahs.  I live in Tucson - big difference.  Forecast next 3 days - 99, 99, 98...of course, that's with some rain to cool things down.  Normally it's in the low 100's like 102-103.

I'd rather have it 103 with 5% humidity than 90 with 90% humidity though.   

To stay on topic - looks like there will be lightning all weekend, so I'll try and get some more pics up.   

[FMGreen]

To a western New Yorker, Phoenix and Tucson might as well be the same town.

I'm with you on the humidity.