Took 4 photos of approaching storm!

[Danudin]

Had a weather warning this evening and grabbed the D70s and snapped a few shots (1 Usable) then grabbed the tripod and set up for night landscape, and ended with 19 interesting/ usable shots. (four of which I include here) with notes.
My query is !. Is using N/Landscape a cheat and is there a manual recommendation for this type of shot. Recently I have been shooting primarily in "M" mode and am happy to report a deminishing number of "toss-aways", but couldn't come up with a quick setting for the storm. Is there a way to shoot lightning with a DSLR?

Storm Approach Hand Held Expos 1.3 sec f3.5 F/L 18mm ISO 200
Lightning SW Tripod Expos 20 sec f3.7 F/L 24mm ISO 200
Passing Plane Tripod Expos 4 sec f4.4 F/L 70mm ISO 200
15 Sec Lightning Tripod Expos 15 sec f4.4 F/L 70mm ISO200

This is new for me so any critique good bad or otherwise will help (Eventually)

Thanks Ron

[Diana]

Hi Ron,

Wow, that storm looks fierce.... you sure captured the feeling.

I, personally, haven't had any experience trying to photograph lightning... perhaps osmeone else here has.... but here are some links to check out:

http://www.elementsvillage.com/forum...d.php?p=402935

http://www.google.com/search?q=photo...x=&startPage=1

Diana

[Danudin]

Checked what you provided Diana, and am still not discouraged, but boy I seem capable of picking tough asks. The links were really interesting.
Ron

[GaryK]

Ron

If the photos were easy, they wouldn't be special.

Great shots of the incoming storm.

[Inspeqtor]

Ron,

Great photos of the approaching storm!

[ljameso1]

Ron the reason the handheld shot is blurry is the shutter speed is too slow to hand-hold that lens. A good rule of thumb for hand holding is to put a 1/focal length of the lens= shutter speed 1/18th sec. Having lens stabilization could get you down to 1/9 or 1/6 with that lens. The tripod was the right answer. What the night mode did for you was to select a small aperture to maximize depth of field and a correspondingly longer shutter speed. You can achieve the same in manual. Just select an aperture in the F16-22 range and give a longer exposure. There are lightening triggers you can buy for your camera, but are pricey.

[Danudin]

[quote=ljameso1;408416]Ron the reason the handheld shot is blurry is the shutter speed is too slow to hand-hold that lens. A good rule of thumb for hand holding is to put a 1/focal length of the lens= shutter speed 1/18th sec. /quote]

Thanks, Linda;

As I said accepted the blur, but thanks for explaining it so that we all know WHY the blur! I never tied the focal length with the shutter speed before, little bits of this photography lark are starting to become clear (pixel by pixel), the rest of your explanation makes a heap of sense too but I guess I will continue to play lightning roulette and try to fluke a fork lightning shot, should be even more rewarding if I am able to fluke that. I will try the smaller aperture and longer exposure next storm, and think I'll buy a miners hat to help see in the dark, carrots don't work, Sally pours them down my throat.
Thank you.
Ron

[ljameso1]

You can actually get a little headlamp to strap on, very useful for night photography. Have fun and don't stand too close to that METAL tripod.

[n-d40]

Ron
you have some nice shots.The "equipment lady " reports that she
couples a trigger at the cable release and sits back and watches.
It picks up during the day. spotted it last week. found it in the village under lightning search.

kevin
ps if all else fails guess before your arm hairs stand up and fire.