Photographing Lightning

I decided to give this a try a few days ago, and I can say, Im hooked. Who would have known it would be so cool?

Anyways, I am just looking for a few tips from anyone that may know about it.

Im wondering what the best settings would be (Im using digital)

What ISO?
What FNumber?
White balance?

Here is a crop of my first ever lightning image:



I believe my settings used for this shot were something like:

ISO 200
Fnumber 2.7
Exposure time 15 secs
White balance daylight
Focus:Infinity

Im thinking that maybe I need to use a lower ISO?

I wish I had a camera that let me keep the shutter open for longer, but 15 secs allows me to get some shots if its an active day.

Dulcimer..We meet again, on a photo topic.

Thats a really nice shot..


Great timing too.
I literally just finished, trying my darndest to photograph a lightning storm.
Plenty of strikes, but none happened at the same time my shutter was open.

I had it in continuous mode, and shot about 300 frames..Nothing..
But it DID start a brushfire..LOL

here is my best attempt, so far, from a couple of years ago.



It's hard to say what settings.
But a low ISO is good, less noise.

But you never know how close, or bright, the strike will be.
Nighttime is little easier. Because you can leave the shutter open for longer periods of time. Thats how I took the shot above.

I think the best thing to do, is keep practicing.
Shoot the evening sky, so it's visible, but not too bright.
Allowing the lightning to provide the illumination.



[edit on 30-5-2007 by spacedoubt]

Thats a cool shot.

I guess practice makes perfect.

I missed so many shots during the last storm because my camera was "busy" processing the last image.

I would take a frame, it stops to do its thing, and I see this massive strike.

LOL, I know Just what you mean.

My camera actually shutdown from overheating, I was taking so many.
As soon as I pulled out the battery, or had to erase my memory card.
WHAM!!!
A beautiful, multiple strike. And me caught with my camera turned off.

We've been having a pretty good series of storms too.
Fortunately the little bit of rain, was enough to put out the brushfires.
I'll be trying again tomorrow.

I have a little entertainment while I shoot.
My biggest dog, is VERY sure that he can "get that thunder monster"
He runs around, wild eyed, and barking.