For almost a week, Penang was hit by massive lightning. The funny thing is the lightning show start almost everyday at the same time, which is in the evening. I'm always fancy about lightning, I start shooting lightning with my film SLR back in 1992. For DSLR I only manage to get some start from this week. To make a lightning interesting, foreground is rather important, but safety always put in the first priority. Some of my tips on lightning shooting..........
1.You need a tripod for the long exposure shot. Lightning often happen in a split of a second but what you need to do is actually shot in longer exposure to "wait" for it to happen. In this case, tripod is a must.
2.Sometime you have to purposely keep your setting under expose, so when lightning appear in your frame, it will make the exposure just nice but this sorely depends on luck also, sometime the lightning will come out of no where to over expose your shot.
3.Continuously shooting mean let your shutter continue clicking no matter what happen. that is the only way to be "lucky" to get some of it.
4. Prepare to get wet on your lens as most of the time you need to point your lens higher to capture the lightning on the sky, do prepare a lens cleaning cloth to clean your lens when ever is necessary.
5.Brave the Storm. The only way to get the lightning is to go out and shoot during the storm, before you go just prepare some covers to keep your gears dry but also remember safety first, find a safe place for your shooting, don't every use a tree as your cover, you are not THOR.
I hope I can get more in the following week. Below are some compilation of my lightning photos. Hope you like it.
