Trying to capture a big lightning in one frame

How to shoot Lightning

Lightning in the dark cloudy skies creats panic amongst weak hearted people and for many people it is sign of iminent danger. Lightning can kills human beings as well as animals. So People tend to stay indoors during such thunder storms when big and loud lightning covers the whole sky. But for photographers it is a sign of doing something risky yet creating, trying to capture a big lightning in one frame.

It is less easier than one thinks but is not much difficult either, with appropriate gears you can capture amazing lightning shots. It does not always have to be big bulky and costly equipments, you can get the same results with your digital / point and shoot cameras too.

What is the basic theory behind shooting a lightning is simple, the more time you keep the aperture of your camera open the more light enters into it. In every camera there is a shutter speed, which means for how much time the shutter remains open. Small cameras do not have much scope though because many point and shoot cameras have shutter speed between 8-15 sec maximum to 1/2000 sec minimum. But not all cameras are capable of keeping the shutter speed fixed.

Anyway if you wish to shoot lightning your camera should be able to fix the shutter speed at the longest time possible. It may be 8 Sec, 15 Sec, 30 Sec or more. In DSLR cameras there is a BULB mode where you can create a frame for as long as you keep the shutter button pressed. Anyway, the most important thing is there should be lightning in the sky.

During summer some times there is surprise events in the sky, like thunderstorms which visit the coastal areas of our state. And during these events more than the rains the thunder and lightning come. So it is wise to utilise this time to shoot the thunders. Again the monsoon is fast approaching so be well prepared.

Equipments required :
1. Digital camera / DSLR with long exposure time
2. Tripod for taking steady shots
3. Patience and lightning

How to do this ?
1. In your camera fix the shutter speed to the maximum available time. In DSLR you can fix it to maximum of 30 sec or more (BULB mode) if you have a remote shutter release button.
2. Use the widest lens available to cover the whole of the sky. In digital camera / PAS camera do not zoom.
3. In dslr keep the lens in manual mode and take a test shot and adjust the focus to get the clean sky. In Digital / PAS cameras if the option is available do it else leave this.
4. There is a aperture in your dslr camera fix it to mid range like f/8-f/14. And ISO between 200-800. So that you can get clean images. Although there is darkness and so you might be thinking with an aperture of f/8-f/14 how can we shoot, do not worry because lightning produces enough light which is many thousand times better than your flash in the camera.
5. Keep your camera on a steady tripod or if not then you can use some plane surface where you can keep your camera for taking the shot. NOTE : Do not expose your camera to rain water.
6. Focus to a big area of sky where lightnings are seen and press the shutter button. And wait till a shot is taken. You have to take a whole lot of shots till you really capture some good shots.
7. I would suggest you use a remote shutter release button so that you can stay away from the wind and rain and yet shoot photos. In DSLRs it is wise to shoot in bulb mode for 3-5 minutes where you can really get some fantastic results.
8. I would also suggest you take as many photos as possible. In DSLR you can keep the camera in burst mode and keep the shutter speed at 30 seconds so that untill you stop it the camera can go on shooting photos. SO that you can get many good result photos.

What to do next ?
Remember the photos straight out of your camera may not look as good / attractive as you see the photos on this blog and so you will need to update the contrast, colors of the photo and at the same time remove the noise from the image to get a good photo. YOu can use the photo editing software like Photoshop or other freely available software to create the amazing photo.

So I hope you would be getting prepared to face the monsoons for an altogether new and creative reason. Good luck.

How to shoot a star trail ?

As a child I always liked the way the stars blinked in the night sky. It is always amazing looking at the stars. And then we were habituated to looking at falling stars and praying for our good.

When I got my first dslr, I wanted to see and shot the moon which was amazing experience and then came the stars. I did see some stars as a kid too, through the telescope our school had in the science laboratory, courtesy our science teacher. Frankly speaking  I did see nothing except darkness. And when I saw on internet that we can shoot the stars as they move (Or should I say the earth moves, because the stars are stationary objects, as per the scientists).

I had been trying a lot to do this and failed miserably a couple of times too. Although I am writing this now, I am not sure whether I have succeeded in shooting a star trail or not, that my readers will judge.

http://www.mymodernmet.com/profiles/blogs/spectacular-australian-star-trails

My Preparation :

A DSLR with long shutter speed facility and burst mode. (I took many shots of 30 seconds duration). And then stacked the images on above the other to get the shot. Also some people suggest you take a BULB mode shot. I tried that too, but did not find suitable results.

A steady tripod is a must so that the camera does not move a bit.

A silent and dark sky is a must, so I chose a night before new moon so that there is no moon in the sky. Also disturbances from light sources should be avoided. Unfortunately I could not do that, because I am in the heart of a city. Anyway I positioned my camera in such a manner that it focussed only on the sky and did not got distraction from city lights. My house fortunately is at a part of city where darkness prevails.

I needed a remote shutter release mechanish, which I purchased form ebay for 300 rupees. It works well.

And last but not the least PATIENCE is the key to the shot.

PROCEDURE :

I mounted my Nikon D5100 DSLR on the tripod and set the aperture to f/5.6 and shutter to 30 sec and multiple shots mode. I chose the ISO to be 1000 and took a test shot of 30 seconds and then adjusted the focus by looking at a distant source of light and then kept the camera still and with the remote trigger I pushed and locked it so that the camera goes on taking 30 seconds shots till I let it do it.

After almost an hour I remembered that I had left my camera outside and rushed and stopped the trigger and found it had taken some 100 shots.

Then I downloaded the images to my computer and used a freely available software called Starstax (DOWNLOAD) to compile the single image. I chose the gap filling mode on the software.

After the single stacked image came out I created a new document in photoshop of 900px X 596px and pasted the image and reduced the size and then improved the contrast and color and added some sharpness and got this result.

I know this is not a big image compared what people have got, but I am glad I have found a good quality star trail. My experiments will continue though.