Just like I said before, English is not my native language so writing articles in English can be painful and time consumption process and I appreciate all comments and grammar corrections.

Start

Lightning photography is not like studio photography and you’ll get probably only one chance for the particular situation. If you failed, you won’t have to many opportunities for another shot and correction. The biggest problems are: exposure, location, potential risk and your camera performance.

What do we need ?

• a decent SLR camera (this can be done with regular p&s cameras but you will need to learn few tricks)
• tripod
• remote shutter option with locking (or at least timer on your camera so you can avoid camera shaking)
• ISO 100 or ISO 200 options

Before you start, clean up your lenses and remove dust or fingerprints.

Where should I go

You will need a nice view and you need to take care about composition. Lightning is not very nice if you see it behind the forest or behind the other objects. Do not choose risky locations (lonely trees, HI voltage towers, mobile antennas, open fields, etc). Remember that this is not a game. Also, try to keep away from other light sources (street lights, highway with high traffic, … ).

Ok, now the practice

Some photographers think that you will need fast hands so you can catch a lightning. NO. We won’t run for them. We will WAIT! That’s why we need a camera with bulb option (the camera shutter will be opened until you press the remote button) and all you need to do is to wait for lightning. Camera shaking will be avoided with remote cable release and tripod. Setup your focus to infinity, set low ISO settings (max 200) because we want to avoid noisy images. Also, turn off noise “remove options” in your camera (this can be done in nice and quiet room on your computer while you drink a hot tea). Also, good idea is to try to catch more than one lightning by keeping your shutter opened after you successfully catch one or two lightnings.

The biggest problem here is the exposure. It depends from current situation and you will need to make small experiment before you decide how long will you keep your shutter opened. Keep in mind that more light means less exposure. 15-30 seconds will be the optimum but just like I said, try it before and see yourself. Exposure also depends on the power and type of the lightning. Lightning photos will not be interesting if you don’t have properly exposed lightning with visible background. Daytime lightning photography means you will need less exposure (less than 1 sec). If you camera don’t have bulb option, set up your exposure manually on specific time.

This article was “in the kitchen” for a long time ago and I’m glad to have it done (finally). Please post your comments about it ant let me know if you find any errors or misspelled words.

Please see below

Dear Contributor,

This serves as a notification to inform you that from now on, all submitted model releases must be scanned, uploaded and attached separately for all your submitted photos. This is to help facilitate the development of our new and upcoming search option which will be launched anytime before the end of this month.

If any of your releases are currently combined (a few releases scanned and uploaded as a single file), your images will not be visible or show up in searches once this search option is launched. Hence, you must separate them as individual releases and reattach them again to your images currently on 123rf to ensure the accuracy of your images when searched.

Example:
An image has 3 models.
DO NOT scan and combine all 3 model releases into 1 file and attach it to the image.
DO scan and upload EACH model release to our release section. Then attach the releases to the image separately.

Your co-operation in this matter is very much appreciated. Thank you.

So this means more job for you and your models…

Rijeka (Istra – Croatia)

The Ribnik river springs from under the Srnetica mountain near the vilage Gornji Ribnik. It springs from two strong springs whose volumes varies between 1.5 – 2.5 m3/s.

The smaller spring is shorter than the other (100 m) and much smaller based on the volume of water. Both springs joins, from where the river has characteristics of a mountain river. The trough oh the river is covered with the pebble and rocks. Somewhere, the rocks reach size of a half of a meter.

In the Ribnik vilage, the river does not have characteristics of a mountain river any more. The banks are soil, and water plants cover more than 50% of the trough oh the river. In these river plants live huge number of shrimp that are the basic source of food of grayling and brown trout.

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About ACD Systems International Inc.
Headquartered in British Columbia since 1993, ACD Systems International Inc. is one of the world’s leading developers and marketers of digital imaging software, including the renowned ACDSee image management tool and Canvas, an advanced technical illustration and graphics program. ACD Systems has millions of consumer and business users and more than 33,000 corporate customers, including many Fortune 500 companies. For further details, please visit www.acdsee.com.

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