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Garry Black Photography

Question:

I am interested in photographing lightning over the water. I live on the Gulf of Mexico and have always wanted to give this a try. I have a 28mm, 28mm-105mm, and a 200mm lens. Now that you know what I have, what type film and procedures should I do to accomplish this?

Answer:

You need a tripod, a cable release and 100 ISO film. Depending on how far the lightning is from you will determine which lens to use. Most of the lightning that I have seen over water is quite far off, so I would try the 200mm. But the problem with that is that you are only looking at a small area on the horizon (you might not get very many lightning flashes in your picture). However if the lightning strikes are close then using the 28 - 105mm lens is a good idea. But the closer the lightning is the better your chances are of being struck by it. I forget how many people get killed each year by lightning - but it is an incredible number!

The technical end of the technique is quite simple, you point the camera in the direction of the lightning, set your aperture to F5.6 - F8, release the shutter and keep it open for a couple of minutes. Hopefully you will have several lightning strikes on that one frame. The confusing part to all of this is keeping the shutter open for so long. What you have to remember is that the film needs light in order to be exposed, so at night with the sky being black it simply won't record on the film. But what does happen in a lightning storm is that the clouds and sky will light up with each flash, that is why you only leave the shutter open for a couple of minutes before advancing to the next frame.

Good Luck, let me know if you're successful.