Cloud to Cloud Lightning

©JP Parmley

5DMIII, 24-70mm 2.8L, 20 sec, f/11, ISO 4000

Last night we had a small thunder cell move through that was producing a little bit of cloud to cloud lightning. We have not had any "Big" bolts lately like we have shown in previous posts.  Using the techniques from earlier posts did not produce any images due to the lack of light from the larger bolts.

So what can you do? Increase the shutter, open the aperture, or increase the ISO.  Well, since I was already at 20 and 30 seconds exposures and experimenting with increased apertures blew the clouds out, I decided to leverage the higher ISO capabilities of the 5DMIII.

These shots were take at 20 and 30 seconds at f/11 and ISO 2500 and 4000.  The ISO allowed the capture of the smaller lightning bursts inside the clouds and captured the stars as well.  I ran these through Lightroom 4 for noise reduction and cropping since the lightning was so small and far away.

5DMIII, 24-70mm 2.8L, 30 sec, f/11, ISO 2500

5DMIII, 24-70mm 2.8L, 30 sec, f/11, ISO 2500

Enjoy,

JP