Greg Campbell Offline Upload & Sell: Off
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IMO, lightning triggers are pretty much useless. Just another bit of gear for the obedient consumer to run out and buy. The main issue is latency - it takes tens of milliseconds to haul the mirror up out of the way and then drag the shutter open. By then, all of the stepped leaders and many of the near-ground branches will have come and gone. This leaves you with single-channel, 'pencil' lightning. Boo!
If you MUST have daytime lightning then triggers are indeed the way to go. If you can wait until early twilight, when 1/x second exposures become possible (not 1/xxx), you can proceed as described below.
The short recipe for twilight or night time lightning photography:
Tripod or sturdy mount of some sort.
Find a nice scene, free from foreground trees, antennae, power lines, and other crap. Having a list of pre-scouted location is almost mandatory.
By hook or crook, get the lens focused to infinity. Use live view, or focus on distant, contrasty subject if enough light is available. Once set, disable AF.
OR - buy some cheap, old school manual focus glass and a $20 adapter. Set and forget!
ISO 100
Aperture to f/8 to start. Chimp and adjust aperture to avoid large blown-out areas or excessively wimpy lightning. The principle is the same as exposure control when using a flash. Using a Big Stopper is not the ticket - all it will do is severely attenuate the lightning.
Tweak shutter speed as needed to expose foreground, clouds, mountains, whatever.
Shutter to continual mode.
Use locking cable remote to Rambo the scene with machine-gun exposures.
Lacking a remote release, cover the lens with a dark something-or-other, then manually trigger the shutter and remove dark thing to start exposure.
If you get tired of watching the camera chunk-chunk-chunk away, spend your time shooting other stormy sky pics with another camera. Keep an eye on the sky above, watching for developing cells that may send Zeus' wrath your way.
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