the lightning bolt itself is brighter than the sun. you can have very small apertures. you probably want to underexpose the sky by between two and three stops to get it to be near black. otherwise, the lightning won't contrast enough with the background. for such long exposures, you probably also want to figure in some reciprocity failure, depending on the film you are using.
Herb.... ----- Original Message ----- From: "Tom Reese" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Thursday, July 03, 2003 11:17 Subject: lightning > I tried to capture some lightning strikes the other day and didn't have any > luck. The bolts always appeared in a direction other than where the camera > was pointing and then the rain came. Does anyone have any suggestions for a > good aperture to use for lightning? I was shooting at f/22 with a polarizer > so I could hold the shutter open for a long time to increase my chances but > now I'm wondering if that's too dark for the lightning to register on the > film. I determined my exposures by pointing a light meter at the sky and > underexposing by half a stop. Some of my exposures were 5 minutes long when > I allowed for the polarizing filter. > >
