Howdy,
So I was given a gift of a canon rebel xs for my wedding, and have pretty much only ever used the auto settings. Anyways, we have a severe weather warning (which almost never happens here, even in a total whiteout blizzard), and I was all "WTF?" Then I realized it, tonight our entire sky was lit up with lightning. Lightning every where, and it was awesome, I tried to take some pictures but 1) Could never catch it 2) If I did it was horrible and you couldn't even tell it was lightning.
So how do I do it? I've only got the standard kit lens, and a 300mm lens that came with the bundle, I've got a tripod also.
I'm assuming the same principles will work for fireworks, since I'm trying to take a picture of something bright in the night sky that doesn't stay there very long, but if there are different tips for getting good fireworks shots, I'd like them too, as our city has a pretty good little fireworks display for the fourth every year.
Thanks.
Whether they find a life there or not, I think Jupiter should be called an enemy planet.
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use your tripod
set the shutter to Bulb mode
close down the f-stop as far as your can(higher numbers on f-stop let less light in).
when you press down the button on bulb the shutter will stay open till you let go. for a night exposure on a fully closed aperture you're going to need to hold it for a few seconds at least. do some tests till you get the lighting level right. even with the tripod be very still and do not move the camera at all.
repeat till you catch some lightning.
i would suggest going to the library or bookstore
this is one of the few areas where the dummy series actually does write a good introductory book
I would also suggest Perfect Digital Photography 2nd edition by Dickman and Kinghorn or Langford's Advanced Photography.
Really most basic photography books will go over basic things like ISO, Aperture, and Shutterspeed that will help you take awesome pictures. Just keep practicing and experimenting and you'll get to learn how to use manual mode effectively.
A quick search on the site returned this article about photographing lightning.
These are great tips. Also, do some searches on Flickr and check out the EXIF data for those pics to see how they were shot.
I don't believe it - I'm on my THIRD PS3, and my FIRST XBOX360. What the heck?