1. Tripod: The most essential part of lightning photography.
2. Camera settings: Mine vary on time of day, etc. These pictures were taken in manual setting, with the shutter speed/exposure length set on "bulb", this allows me to use a remote to control the shutter speed. I can let in as much light, or as little light as I wish. I'd say typical exposure times ranged from 10 seconds, to longer than 30 seconds. Just depended on how vibrant the lightning was. If too much light was let in, it gets over-exposed. Which, can be fixed on photoshop if needed. I shot this night at f/2.8 and f/3.2, with the ISO set at 100. The lightning was very bright and vibrant, almost to the point I could not watch it directly. It was shot with my Nikon D7000 and Tokina 11-16mm lens.
Another option is to leave the shutter open, but to take a piece of cardboard and cover it in between bolts. This works great if bolts are sporadic or spaced apart, but the other night, the bolts were continuous for the most part. Pictures with multiple bolts are basically a composition. Usually each of those bolts happened at seperate instances, but because I had the shutter open still, I was able to capture them all, giving the picture the look that all the bolts occurred at once.
Nice pics. Were you high up or is it just really flat where you live? I'm with Mac, what kind of settings are you using?
It is just flat in northern IL.
