Tips I’ve Learned from Photographing Lightning in South Florida

My name is Alex Brock, and I’m a photo enthusiast living in South Florida. I spent many nights last summer chasing storms through swamps and along the beach attempting to learn to shoot lightning, and I’d like to share some things I learned to help others who are starting out.

I’m a simple hobbyist, so please take these suggestions with a grain of salt or at face value… or whatever — you know what I mean.

Settings usually depend on a few factors: ambient light (dusk, evening, dark night, etc), the distance you are from the storm, and the size of the lighting the storms are putting down.

Example 1: Dusk Lightning

Settings: 6s, f/16, ISO 100
Lens: Tokina 11-16mm

Since this was shot during dusk and I was, by my own admission, entirely too close to this storm, I had shorten the exposure quite a bit and narrow the aperture and keep my ISO at the base. Shutter release cable really comes in handy here, especially for these shorter exposure times.

Example 2: Beach Lightning

Settings: 10s, f/4, ISO 400
Lens: Tokina 11-16mm

Taken at night and the storm was drifting further offshore so I had use a pretty wide aperture and bump the ISO a bit. Obviously you wanna be careful with this because too much and you’ll blow it out but you’ll get a handle on the balance after a while. I try and keep exposure times down below 20 seconds because I feel like I get better detail from the bolt. There’s not much backing that up… just some weird prejudice I have.

Example 3: Ocean Lightning

Settings: 20s, f/10, ISO 400
Lens: EF-S 18-135mm (shot at 45mm)

This one was shot a bit differently because as this cell was moving offshore I used my stock zoom lens to get tighter on the part of the cell putting down lightning. Narrowed the aperture a bit and it seemed to work out pretty well. I got lucky because it’s tough to get real tight on a cell and get a strike in the frame.

Example 4: Okeechobee Lightning

Settings: 10s, f/10, ISO 200
Lens: Tokina 11-16mm

This strike was huge. This storm was drifting away from me and by this time it was quite far and I wasn’t expecting to get anything else out of it but it put down one last major bolt. Wish I had been closer (maybe) but somehow the settings worked out in my favor as I had left them on what they were set for when the cell was closer to me. It was pretty dark and had a narrow app and low ISO but the strike was so huge and bright it came out okay.

In terms of gear (I shoot on a Rebel T5i) I usually use my 11-16mm or my 17-50mm. The most important piece to me, beyond the obvious, is a shutter release cable. This allows me to set my exposure and lock in the shutter release and let the camera roll. You end up with a ton of shots, but you’re almost guaranteed to get the strike (if you’ve framed it right). You just need to go through and delete like 98% of the unsuccessful shots, but it’s worth it.

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