Just want to share with everyone, my time lapse I captured at White Night from the weekend.
It was captured over a one hour period.
Enjoy the Chase
Trav
Chase Number 2 - Lightning
f11 @ 30 seconds, ISO 400, 18mm
I've had a few people ask me how I captured the lightning strike on the top of my blog page. This is how I did it. This isn't the only way, this is just one of the ways you can photograph lightning.
There is nothing like a storm on a hot, humid summers night. The fresh cool breeze that filters through open windows feels so refreshing. The constant sound of the rain, so soothing and calming. Crack, and a flash of light. Where is my camera? It's enough to get my creative juices flowing.
Capturing an epic lightning strike, there is an element of good luck and fortune involved. However, your chances of success can be increased with some preparation and planning. A lot depends on the position of the lightning. The lightning is often occurring behind clouds and the sky acts as a giant soft box lighting up the whole sky, not allowing anything worth while to be captured (in terms of a lightning strike). But, if it's happening in front of the clouds, your in luck. If it's not raining you're in even more luck. The above image was captured on a hot, humid summer's night before the rain came down. It allowed me to take my camera outside and not worry about it getting wet.
Equipment
A tripod is an optionally piece of equipment, but will increase your chances of success. Due to lightnings fast and sharp nature, it isn't necessary to have a steady hand if you're allowing the lightning strike to exposure your image and not relying on the ambient light. But it is easier to use a tripod and in my view, it is essential. A shutter release will also increase your chances as it can be set and forgotten. I prefer a wide angle lens to capture as much area as possible and crop the image later. The image taken above was captured on my old Pentax isDl, which is a 6 mega-pixel camera. During editing, I cropped a third of the frame out. The picture is hanging on my wall at 100 cm by 30 cm and the resolution is fine. Focus on a bright point in the distance and turn your camera to manual focus and forget about it.
Exposure
How to exposure your image will depend on the result you are after. I recommend setting your shutter speed to 30 seconds, giving yourself a good chance of a strike occurring within this time frame. If you are planning for a lit image with a lightning strike through it then you need to set the rest of your camera settings to exposure for the ambient light. You may need to reduce your exposure depending on the size of the strikes (the amount of light they produce). You WILL need a tripod for this scenario. If a black foreground is what you are wanting, like my image, then choosing settings at 30 seconds that result in a black image with no strike is what you need to dial in. The best way to find the settings required is to keep changing your settings until you end up with a black image. It needs to be at a level that it is just black, any more light and you will have an image. However, it is your image, if you want some ambient light then go for it. You can reduce your shadows in post if you want a slightly darker foreground.
All that there is left to do is to lock in your shutter release and hope that there is a lightning strike in your frame, hopefully in a desirable location in your frame. If lightning strikes twice in the one frame, you've just struck photography gold! I turn my camera to burst mode and just let the camera continue to click away. I always shoot in raw, which will allow me to change the white balance, change the exposure and shadows in post.
Enjoy the lighting chase!
Chase Number 1 – Writing with light
Settings: 20 sec @ f5 ISO 100 @ 28mm
Welcome to Chasing the Light Photography Blog. This is a space where I will discuss all things photography. Please feel free to contact me to discuss posts on this blog or ask questions.
During the summer holidays I ventured down to the coast to Dromana (Victoria, Australia) with some family and friends. I gathered a group of people and took a nice stroll on the beach, with tripod and camera in hand, to play with long exposures.
I had my friends run around in front of the camera with phones on torch mode writing things in the air. Once they were finished I had them run out of shot. Due to the low light levels being reflected off my friends compared to their phones they are hardly noticeable in the images. I had my shutter speed set to 30 seconds, setting the aperture and ISO accordingly to expose the background to my liking.
To produce the ghostly image below I had them stand in one area for 8-10 seconds then move on to a new area and pose.
In this busy world I find it a must to take some time out and just do things because they are fun and enjoyable.
Settings: 30 Seconds @f5.6 ISO 100 @ 28mm