This is an article by Peter West Carey over at Digital Photography School.
When you want to take images of lightning you should find a safe spot with a steady surface to set your tripod on. Remember that during storms the blowing wind can move things around, so it’s a good idea to balance your tripod by hanging your backpack or a sandbag from the center pole of the tripod. Depending on the time of day you may also want to consider using a filter for those long exposures, to avoid overexposed areas in your image.
Long Shutter Times
While lightning is unpredictable, it’s extremely hard to make a decent capture by tripping the shutter when you see a flash. There are some fancy remote controls that have the ability to trip when the flash is sensed, but I’m guessing you don’t want to invest in these types of gadgets. Depending on your cameras ability to manage noise on slow shutter speeds, using a timing of 30 seconds can work well. The bulb setting can also be handy if you have a way to keep the shutter open.
Include Something Interesting
While the action will be in the sky, don’t forget to keep something in the frame to give relevance and perspective to the shot. Buildings are a favorite, but really, anything that can give an idea of the size of the storm works well.
Manual Focus
It’s best to use manual focus when shooting in lightning situations. Mainly because the view will probably be at night (but not always) with a fair amount of darkness. Rather than allow your camera to hunt around for something to focus on with each new shot, get a good manual focus on the sky and leave it there.
Stack ’em
If you can keep your camera in a steady spot, shot after shot, you can use stacking software to combine multiple strikes into one image. You’ll often have many unexciting shots with maybe just a single strike or faint action between clouds. These can all be combined to make a spectacular image.
Read the full article with even more tips over at Digital Photography School.
Source: Digital Photography School
