I was working at my computer late one evening in July of 2011 when an intense lightning storm hit Chicago. The unique thing about this storm was there was no rain. I could see the continuous flash of lightning through my windows — it was non-stop. I grabbed my camera, tripod and cable release and headed out the door.
Photographing lightning is not tricky, it's actually pretty easy. What's far more difficult is being at the right location at the right time. When I taught high school photography I was often asked how to photograph lightning. "I'm not fast enough" or "I can't time it just right" my student's would say. It's nearly impossible to time the "press of the shutter" with the actual strike. You'll be too late and miss it. So how is it done?
I drove to the lakefront away from the tall buildings and ambient light of the city. I placed my camera on a tripod and pointed the lens out into the blackness of the lake. I set my aperture at f/22 and my camera mode to B. If you're not familiar with the B setting, it stands for bulb. (Derived from the old-days when a photographer would actually squeeze an air bulb to force open the shutter. The shutter would close only when the photographer released the bulb and the air escaped.) This allowed me to open the shutter with my cable release for as long as I wanted, and close the shutter when releasing the button. Essentially I could keep the shutter open indefinitely.
Since there was very little ambient light, I was able to open the shutter and wait for the lightning to strike. On this particular night, I had the shutter open anywhere from 60 sec. to as long as 200 sec. sometimes capturing multiple strikes at different times in the same frame. Here's an example...
f/22 at 60 sec. ISO 100
You can see the only light (besides the lightning) was coming from the dim pier lights. It would be very difficult to overexpose the pier lights when stopped down to f/22 no matter how long the shutter is open. The lightning, however, is so intense and bright that when it strikes it will register on your sensor.
Here's another example where the shutter was open for a long time. There are approximately 8 different strikes all occurring at different times over the course of 120 seconds...
f/22 at 120 sec. ISO 100
If you'd like to capture lighting, you'll need a tripod and a cable release for your camera. Get your camera into position and set it to bulb mode. On the Canon 5d MK II bulb is an actual setting adjacent to M or manual. Stop down your aperture to f/16 or f/22 (depending on your lens.) I should also note that I set my ISO to 100. Again, the goal is to capture very little ambient light, so the combination of stopping down and ISO 100 will let you keep the shutter open and waiting for the lighting without risk of over-exposure.
After making a handful of images the rain began to move in. I knew I had some fun shots so I packed up and got out in a hurry. I've seen far better, even extraordinary lighting photographs around the web. Some people get very good at this. That said, I was really happy with my one and only attempt and had a great deal of fun reviewing and editing the photos.