Almost any setting will get lightning. Think of it as a giant flash gun in the sky. No one seems to complain of blown hotspots
The trick is to have the shutter open when the lightning strikes. The normal approach here is to leave the shutter open a long time, and close down the aperture so the rest of the scene is not over exposed. An ND filter can help.
But if you don't have a tripod, long exposures can be iffy at best. It can be equally valid to use short exposures set for the scene, take lots of photos, and hope like hell. I tried this with a P&S once, that had no manual anything , and out of about 100 photos got two that worked. Don't forget film is cheap.
Another option is to go for the long exposure, and use a table, car roof, fence post or whatever as an impromptu "tripod". you can use a wadded up hankie or a cushion to position the lens to point in roughly the right direction (ie up!). Use the timer release to fire the shutter so you minimise movement.
With your photos, I think they both work well. The first shows the storm, rather than just the lightning. The second is a good direct strike. Lightning doesn't always branch.
Posted: Sun Mar 04, 2007 11:50 pm
