How to take beautiful pictures of lightning and the best cameras for lightning photography and video. Camera settings and tips… To license video contact [email protected]
TRIPOD
Use a tripod so that you can take long exposures without motion blur. The heavier the tripod, the better. Instead of pushing the shutter button on your camera body, use a cable release. That way you won’t risk moving the camera with your big clumsy finger.
FOCUS TIP
Set your camera on manual focus and focus on infinity. CAREFUL! Many camera lenses focus beyond infinity so I always have to nudge my focus back a hair. Focus on a distant light to make sure you’re in perfect focus.
BEST CAMERA SETTINGS
ISO
Start with your ISO set at 100.
APERTURE / F-stop
Start off in the middle around F8.
If lightning is striking far away, and shows up too dim, open your f-stop more to f5.6 – f2 until all the branches are nice and bright. If you have too much light, close your f-stop to f11 – f22. If your f-stop is open all the way and the lighting branches still are not showing up well, then bump up your ISO to 200, 300, 400 etc.
EXPOSURE
When it’s finally dark enough, start taking long exposures… 1 second – 10 seconds or more depending on how much ambient light there is. My favorite time to shoot lightning is at sunset. Because of all the existing light, you can only leave your shutter open a second or two. Once it’s pitch black, you can leave your shutter open for 10, 20, 30 seconds or more.
BEST CAMERAS FOR LIGHTNING PHOTOGRAPHY
The best cameras for lightning photography are the ones with manual settings options. Most digital DSLR cameras or mirrorless cameras have these options. Nikon, Cannon, Sony, Fuji, etc. all work great.
HOW TO TAKE PICTURES OF LIGHTNING WITH A PHONE
The best way to take photos of lightning with a phone camera is to just shoot video and then take a screen grab of a good frame. You might get lucky trying to take a photo with burst mode or by simply taking a normal photo, but the cards are stacked against you.
ROLLING SHUTTER vs GLOBAL SHUTTER
Most video cameras nowadays are equipped with a rolling shutter. that means the frames you are capturing are recorded through a scanning process that rolls down the sensor. Though this process occurs really fast, lightning is much faster. The result is often annoying blocky rectangles called partial exposures.
Most negative lightning strikes I capture on video are ruined with partial exposures. Positive lightning channels and anvil crawler lightning tend to exist longer, thus are captured some-what better by rolling shutters. While shooting video of lightning with a rolling shutter, I usually set the shutter speed at 30, the frame rate at 30 and cross my fingers.
Another option is to invest in a camera with a global shutter. A global shutter scans a snapshot of the entire scene all at once. So, no partial exposures. The catch is you’ll likely spend thousands of dollars at least on a good HD or 4K camera and the global shutter technology is not one for low light sensitivity.
Music:
“Won’t Pray Adagio” by Southern Backtones
guitar score by Hank Schyma
“Ode to Joy” performed by Hank Schyma
*** FREE Pecos Hank 2018 calendar poster file ***
You can shrink it down and print it on your home printer, or have a shop print the full 24×16. You can also use it as your desktop background.
I’d love to know what country or state this poster is hanging up in so let me know in the comments.
Merry Christmas from Texas!
Download link:
I came across your site 2 days ago while searching the Joplin,Mo. tornado! I saw for myself first hand what an F5 rated tornado could do. I was raised in Oklahoma, moved to Missouri for 30 years, then back to Oklahoma for 9, and been out here in Wyoming for a little over a year now. I've always been interested in tornado's and storms since being a teen. I probably took myself out of getting any decent photos/videos of tornado's/supercell storms by moving out of Tornado Alley to the sage plains of Wy.
I want to tell you that I really enjoy your Storm Chasing videos, your candid and naunaced little side scenes and quips! Also your technical knowledge and how you put to use, (Tips and Tricks)! I am subscribed to your channel and the channel of Orf, on his study with computer engineered software what makes Tornado's do what they do and what to look for! It is all fascinating to me and always has been. I want to learn as much as possible, and with people like yourself and the Scientific software being used in Wisconsin I believe, I and others will gain more knowledge of Storms and Tornado's. You stay on your toes and don't let a Storm/Twister pull an El Reno on you! The 2019 season is just around the corner! Looking forward to what you can come up with this year! I live for Storm Chasing through people such as yourself! Never been on a dedicated season of Storm Chasing myself. Keep up the great work, keep safe, and get that important footage and information to the right people!
Most Respectfully; Jon C.
That "M" on the dial isn't manual focus mode!
Bro, I'm so glad I found you. I don't know what the hell you said about all those camera settings and shit but i'm willing to learn. I think I'm hooked. I love lightning!
U r a Legend!!!thank you.
We just had two storms in 4 days, clear skies, minimal wind and no rain. Conditions were perfect but all I had was my phone. I got a few nice shots. It really is remarkable what these little pocket computers can do these days.
Hey dude, thanks heaps for this. I managed to get these shots and clips!!!!! thank you for teaching me how to! https://youtu.be/eQ2aWw_SaUI
Fantastic tutorial. Thanks for sharing!! I have a fuji now but I miss my D7000. A solid, do it all, beast of a camera.
hey buddy thanks for this, much appreciated and love the delivery no-nonsense bs, down to earth, thanks for the inspiration, from Fort Erie Ontario Canada
1:22 that's not manual focus, common xD
Dude this is so awesome. Thanks man.
Best storm chasing videos on YouTube.
Wow amazing video with so much information. Thanks a lot Hank
Also love what you did with your channel . You have my subscription would love to have your support as well. Be safe Nd have a Happy and safe new year my friend.
ATB Joe
😎
👊🏻
I love your work, that’s my first video from you but I have the same feeling with thunders.. I just love them, and I am starting to capture them with my camera
Love from Greece
Gosh Pecos, what are you doing in Thailand? I guess you're not taking pictures of thunderstorms. Thailand and Japan are my two favorite countries.
Hey Hank. This must be best tutorial ever. Other than keeping the shutter open, some prefer using lightning triggers. Heard there is this miops thing that can be trigger your camera by lightning. It looks like a comfortable solution.
What cameras and lenses do you use?
Just watching your techniques…
Loved your video! Filled with real and proper information, mixed with some humor in between! Keep up the good work! =)
Wow great job. I did understand most of the information and i just had 40 Lectures of english 25 Years ago. Oh am i old….. Thumbs up and have a good time.
lol. Well, that was awesome.
I discovered your channel with this video, October 22, 2018, I am not youtuber but I am a lightning hunter for more than 5 years, I am from Cancun Mexico and a group of people dedicate ourselves to this, here since July the lightning begins and ends in this month, we also drive towards the storm, blessed weather apps. I really like your video, at this moment I subscribe.
Make more videos!!! If it ever stops raining in Texas….
You SIRE ( With A Texas Accent ) Deserve my Like and Subscribe
And this is a true tutorial!!!
what a nice guy
What if life hands you lemonade? What do you make with lemonade?
Consistently excellent work.
0:52 that's an awesome pic to have. Looks like you got your "Oh Shit" face on
We just had a pretty cool lightning storm here today.
Got home from work and grabbed my gear, went back out, found a cool parking lot with a view nearby, set up the tri pod on the passenger seat, camera set up and then…..nothing. 😢
Storm was gone, just as fast as it arrived.
Oh well, maybe next time.
Great video! I live in Southern California and lightning (and rain) is a rarity but there could be some tonight! I happened to capture some lightning last year and am excited to try again tonight!
Though I feel stupid for asking this. Were you being serious or sarcastic at @00:42? I mean, naturally you want a tripod to keep that camera still but if you're out in the open somewhere, could the tripod actually present a risk of being struck? I mean, you presented that in a goofy way so I'm not sure if you were being sarcastic and don't want people to actually do that OR if you were being serious…yeah, I feel dumb asking. Lol. Obviously I'm not as well versed in lightning (though I LOVE watching it) but the idea of taking a tripod somewhere out in the open and shooting sounds like a way to attract lightning a little too close?
Amazing photos and videos. and thank you for sharing.
Hank, have you ever seen a tornado go right down the center of a freeway? Do you know anyone that was on any freeway & just happened to have movie camera as they're on the side or of the freeway & catch a tornado going down the center of the freeway? Has to be freaky. Bye now.