Lightning over the Sierra Nevada foothills, Mariposa County, CA, USA
We had some pre-Fourth-of-July fireworks here Wednesday night. At about 11:00 p.m. I let our dog Rider out before going to bed, and noticed flashes in the sky to the south. Sleep could wait! Claudia and I headed to a nearby viewpoint on Triangle Road, and saw lightning in three separate storm cells to the southeast, south, and southwest.
When watching thunderstorms you often only see cloud-to-cloud lightning, but on this night we could see some distinct bolts hitting the ground. I watched closely to try to determine where the most lightning activity was taking place. My first try didn’t work, but then another spot further to the right seemed to become more active, so I pointed my camera there, locked the tripod, and captured a series of 30-second exposures (each at f/9.5, 800 ISO). This photograph is a blend of five separate frames capturing seven or eight lightning bolts.
We don’t get many chances to photograph lightning here in California, and I’ve seen many promising storm cells fizzle as soon as I set up my camera. So it was fun to actually capture a nice series of jagged bolts this time. Last September I had some success photographing lightning near Bishop, on the eastern side of the Sierra, so maybe my luck is changing. 🙂
To my fellow U.S. citizens, Happy Fourth of July! Hope you get to see some great fireworks.
— Michael Frye
P.S. In my post about photographing lightning near Bishop last September I explain how to blend exposures together for an image like this.
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Michael Frye is a professional photographer specializing in landscapes and nature. He is the author or principal photographer of The Photographer’s Guide to Yosemite, Yosemite Meditations, Yosemite Meditations for Women, Yosemite Meditations for Adventurers, and Digital Landscape Photography: In the Footsteps of Ansel Adams and the Great Masters. He has also written three eBooks: Light & Land: Landscapes in the Digital Darkroom, Exposure for Outdoor Photography, and Landscapes in Lightroom 5: The Essential Step-by-Step Guide. Michael has written numerous magazine articles on the art and technique of photography, and his images have been published in over thirty countries around the world. Michael has lived either in or near Yosemite National Park since 1983, currently residing just outside the park in Mariposa, California.
This capture is just awe inspiring. I know you stated that this was in California, but I am wondering if these lightning strikes were some friends of those who possibly started the wildfires in British Columbia. Our weather forecaster on CTV in Halifax should see these. Thank you.
Thanks Michelle! Our thunderstorms were triggered by subtropical moisture pushing up from the south, so I don’t think there’s a relation to what happened in BC.
We had a great one here in Deep Springs Valley the other night, but my own bad luck photographing lightning has yet to improve. I’m hoping to get some more chances soon! Michael, how do you handle focus when setting up under storm clouds at 11:00 p.m.? Just go by lens markings, or do you have any other tricks?
Well I hope your luck changes Jackson. For all my night photography I use manual focus in live view, zoomed in. In this case I found a distant light to focus on (not in the frame here). Using lens markings will guarantee an out of focus picture.
Michae,
Great shot!
Many years ago I walked through a gallery in Taos, NM which featured an artist whose oil paintings were of storms with cloud to ground lightning strikes. Although I cannot remember his name, his work was beyond outstanding. Your photograph is very reminiscent of his paintings. One original, about 8×4 feet in size, was priced at $40,000. Needless to say, WAY OUT OF MY LEAGUE!!!
Maybe you should move to Taos… 🙂
Happy 4th of July,
Jim
Thanks Jim! Taos is a nice place, but I like where I am. 🙂
This is a great shot! No question about it- Living near Tucson, AZ we get quite a lot of lightning here due to the Monsoon season. Most articles I have read on the subject list the camera settings @ ISO 100- f/8 or so. I have a question as to why your ISO setting was all the way up to 800?? I have had great success using an ISO of only 100 which renders the scenery to quite a dark area making the lightning show up even more-I’m not questioning your reasoning or ability, but wish to know why and maybe it will improve my shooting of lightning??
I enjoy your blog and find your tips and tutorials very helpful- You do a great service for the Photography industry!!
Hope your 4th was a super one!!
Ron
Thank you Ron! In my experience, 100 ISO makes the lightning too dark, so that’s why I use 800 ISO. I could use a wider aperture, but then the corners of the image wouldn’t be as sharp. As you probably know, shutter speed doesn’t matter in determining the exposure for the lightning, since the exposure time for each bolt is determined by the length of time it flickers, and it’s brightness – although the exposure time will influence how bright the rest of the scene looks. So the only controls you have over the exposure for the lightning itself are the aperture and ISO.
Michael: Thanks for your reply and input-I’ll have to try the higher ISO for myself- Appreciate your input!!
Ron Stein
Michael, did you blend the multiple lightning exposures in Lightroom with the HDR blend tool?
Brad, no, that wouldn’t work for this purpose. The Lightroom HDR merge (or any other HDR or exposure-blending application) is designed to blend lighter and darker exposures of the same scene to capture greater dynamic range than would be possible with just one frame. Here, each exposure was made with the same settings; the only difference between them was that they captured different moments, with different lightning bolts. I used Photoshop to merge the images, with the layers set to the Lighten blending mode (which makes light override dark, so light areas like lightning bolts in one frame override dark areas in other frames).