AboutJohn and Chris Expertise We are both professional photographers, with over 15 years experience. We can answer questions about photography, as well as questions about cameras from the 60s to 90s. (extensive 35mm, quite a bit of other formats.) Please, no darkroom questions.
Expert: John and Chris Date: 5/16/2004 Subject: lightning
Question I would like to try to take a picture of lightning. I have heard to use a large f stop (f16+) and hold the shutter open on the bulb setting using 400 speed film. What do you reccomend?
Answer Bill,
There are a number of methods to do this. Your way should work, but it seems like a waste of money to me. I'd use a slower fiim speed and open up the aperture. I remember doing this when I was a kid. I used 100 ISO print film and opened up to f1.4. Then I just left the shutter open untill I got 3 or 4 good strikes. Exposure isn't that critical unless you are trying to not let any ambient light expose the film. The way I just mentioned was long enough for me to get a good exposure of the city as well as the lightning.
