Spring storms have arrived this season, with many parts of the country getting thunderstorms. And with that comes storm and lightning photography. Most years we head to Badlands NP in late May for our photo workshop, and often we get strong thunderstorms moving across the eroded landscape. In years past we have used lightning triggers. Basically set it up and sync it to your camera, and every lightning bolt will be recorded when the sensor sees it. But now there is a new way, with no extra equipment required.
Most camera brands have a version of pre release capture (as Nikon calls it). This feature allows you to record images that happed right before you pushed your shutter button. It’s like going back in time! With Nikon I can record up to a second before shutter release. This feature is very helpful when you just miss the action shot. Imagine a bird on a perch, and you want to get the shot of the bird taking off. Suddenly the bird takes flight, but you hit your shutter a second after it took off. No worries, with pre release capture you will have captured the takeoff image.
Lightning works the same way. You set up your camera for the approaching storm and wait for the lightning strike. As soon as you see the lightning, hit your shutter and your camera will record frames before you hit the shutter, capturing the lightning in the image. This isn’t quite as easy as using a lightning trigger since you have to be watching for the lighting. But it works perfectly, and you don’t need extra gear to do it. If you are shooting at low light or night, you can just use longer exposure times. With active storms and lightning, it is easy to capture lighting over a long exposure.
You will have to learn how to set up pre release capture in your camera. For Nikon users I wrote a story for Nikon on it, you can find it here. I like to shoot at 30FPS using this feature, but you can try faster frame rates as well. Experiment, learn and enjoy!