I've been trolling through the posts on here for some time now without posting any replies. Here's goes my first post...It's a bit of a monster size but I think it may be helpful.
Ian,
I haven't got many decent photos of lightning (due to not being prepared) and those I do have are on film and I have no film scanner so unfortunately none to post here, BUT I can give you a few pointers on preparation as I've been researching this for months now in anticipation of this years storm season (which has started surprisingly early don't you think??).
Go out and about while the weather is nice. Take a map, compass, notepad and pen and leave the camera at home. Note places where you think a lightning picture would look good, WRITE IT DOWN in the notepad so you can quickly reference it while "chasing" your storm. Preparation like this will enable you to get to the location get framed as best you can and be ready. Also as your storm travels across country, you will already have a pretty good idea where your next shot will be taken from.
Firstly you need to know when, where and what direction your storm is likely to be. For this, I use CAPE and LIFTED INDEX GFS models from
http://www.wetterzentrale.de/topkarten/fsavneur.html
Click on CAPE+LIFTED index in the menu at the top.
Looking at the chart, the CAPE (Convectively Available Potential Energy) is in colours and the LIFTED INDEX is in numbers. Basically, the more toward the RED on the scale the more energy the uplifting air has and the lower the number the cooler it is likely to be at altitude. So, lots of RED and the lower the number the better chance you have of seeing a storm develop. Orange to pink and a minus number are pretty good for storms. Green and a number 0 or above, stay at home.
Also, from the same site, click on Niederschlag (Rainfall). The orange dots round the outside of the rainfall are where convective cloud formations are likely to occur. Convective clouds = good chance of storms.
Right, you've predicted when your storm is likely to come across now to keep track of it once it hits land. To do this I use a selection of free online real-time lightning detectors.
http://blitzortung.org/index.php?station=1&mode=0&map=5&lang=e
http://www.meteorologica.info/freedata_lightning.htm
http://www.nowcast.co.uk//lightning/index.htm
These are the three I use most. I use three because, none are all that acurate and you can take a "best guess" average of the three to locate your storm and you never know when one of them may be offline due to fault or site maintenance.
Forget about FM in glorious stereo...Hark back to the glory days of Radio Caroline and Luxemburg and set your car stereo to AM. Lightning will register as sharp pops (Spherics) on the sound. Tune to a few different transmitters so you know roughly which direction your storm will be comming from due to the level of the Spherics on the radio.
http://www.mediumwaveradio.com/uk.php
OK, your storm is approaching and you're out with your camera. You're listening to Radio 4 or 5 Live on AM with a hint of French radio bleeding in and out and it's popping like crazy.
First preparation is ALWAYS SAFETY. Make sure you're not out on a hill or near trees or in the middle of a field. Make sure there's plenty around you taller than you are but don't get too close as ligtning can travel a surprising distance through the ground especially if you are stood above something conductive like electrical cables or metallic drainage or water pipes. Best place to be would be in the car, practice setting the tripod up in the car so you can point the camera lens out of the window when it's wound down or out of the boot as the bootlid of the car will give you a decent umberella without having to sit out in the rain holding an umberella (which makes an excellent lightning conductor!!). Also remember that lighning isn't restricted to under the main body of the storm. Lightning can eminate from a thunder cloud and hit ground miles away. If the storm passes overhead, bring the camera in, get in the car, wind the windows up, keep away from the metalwork of the car and sit it out until the storm has passed. Better to be around to catch the next storm than risk getting struck and not see another.
Have your camera ready. Familiarise yourself with the focus on the camera. Which way is infinity (Mark it on the lens with white stickers if needs be) and which is near focus. Trying to determine which is infinity in the dark is almost imposible. Sit with your camera in the light and run over and over again, changing the settings (shutter and aperture)...then close your eyes and do it all over again until you know exactly where each button is and how to change the settings in the near dark.
Have the essentials with you. Camera, fully charged batteries for camera and torch, tripod, wide angle lens, torch, microfibre cloth, lens cloth, re-sealable plastic bags to keep lens and microfibre cloths dry, large freezer bag with hole for lens at one end (to keep camera dry), elastic band (to fix open end of freezer bag round the end of the lens), black card (for covering front element of lens during long exposures), waterproof jacket, stopwatch, and unless you know the area well a map and compass or Sat Nav or GPS.
Set the camera for a low ISO around 100 or 200. Turn noise reduction off as you will have to wait for the camera to apply noise reduction to the shots and I've lost count of the amount of shots missed due to moise reduction. Noise Ninja can sort noise out in post process.
Manual exposure settings should be around F5.6 for strikes that are far away or weak and F8 for close or strong strikes. Exposure times can be 15 to 30 seconds or even BULB, using the black card to cover the lens to get multiple strikes on one frame if the interval between strikes allows.
If shooting with streetlights in the frame, try aperture priority on around F8. Let the camera decide the shutter speed and hope that it's long enough to get a few strikes in. If the shots come out too dark open up the shutter a bit but try and keep the shutter open at least 10 to 15 seconds to get a decent chance of catching a strike.
Time the strikes. If the strikes are an average of 45 seconds appart and you have a shutter speed of 30 seconds fire the shutter at around 35 seconds after the last strike. If you can get away with using the bulb setting fire off a test shot to see how long you can get away with due to background light and use the black card between timed strikes.
After each frame, check the front of the lens for waterdroplets. Clean the lens with the lens cloth if needs be. Waterdroplets will refract any strong light hitting them and render your next shot a complete dud. Keep the lens clean and dry.
The finer details of exposure times and alike can be found here:
http://www.lightningphotography.com/tips.html
http://www.weatherscapes.com/techniques.php?cat=lightning&page=lightning
Most of all stay safe. If in doubt....don't. "Lightning Vs You" ...you're more likely to loose.
Hope this was of help to you all.
Chris.
