Dymondgurl:
And finito. Bt I'll love the professionals to enlighten us on how activities that occur at the speed of lightening are caught on camera.

prof800:


I don't really know how these shots are made but I know about capturing high speed motion.

There is this camera I saw on NatGeoWild that captures video up to 10,000fps (frames per seconds) at a moderately high resolution. It was used to capture some very high speed events that occur within the fraction of a second such as the grabbing of an insect by the tongue of a chameleon etc.
The trick will be to put the camera on record mode, capture the event then freeze frame in your video editing suite. Simple... I think.


That is just basic stuff tho.

For really geeky stuffs, there is the super slow motion camera that captures moving bullet and bullet impact (used by the "slow mo guys" at about 100,000 to 1million fps... yea 1million fps!
There is also Femto-photography, 10million fps craze etc.

Cameras like HyperVision and Phantom flex and V-series are notable for stuffs like these.

prof800:

I don't really know how these shots are made but I know about capturing high speed motion.
There is this camera I saw on NatGeoWild that captures video up to 10,000fps (frames per seconds) at a moderately high resolution. It was used to capture some very high speed events that occur within the fraction of a second such as the grabbing of an insect by the tongue of a chameleon etc.
The trick will be to put the camera on record mode, capture the event then freeze frame in your video editing suite. Simple... I think.
That is just basic stuff tho.
For really geeky stuffs, there is the super slow motion camera that captures moving bullet and bullet impact (used by the "slow mo guys" at about 100,000 to 1million fps... yea 1million fps!
There is also Femto-photography, 10million fps craze etc.
Cameras like HyperVision and Phantom flex and V-series are notable for stuffs like these.

Feraz:
The bolded was what I did when I tried capturing lightening but it was just too fast. I set the camera on video mode and when it records any form of lightening, I then capture the image from there.

VillageBoi:
@ Feraz

Capturing bolts of lightning is pretty simple if you follow the 'right' procedure. Can I assume you were using a DSLR? Don't go into video mode, rather switch back to stills mode.

Here are the basic tricks -

Observe the storm you want to shoot... position yourself so it is not coming towards you or away from you but rather across from left to right or right to left - just like something panning across your camera.

Use a TRIPOD, you will never get this handheld. It pretty impossible that you will ever get the FIRST flash... observe lightning and you will notice that almost every big flash is followed very quickly by a number of smaller flashes.

Your distance from the storm is also very important. For safety you want to be probably 10-20km away from the storm... you are using metal items outside (preferably under some building cover just in case of a downpour of rain... or indoors from an open window that doesn't show in the frame. When you see a flash - count how long it takes before you hear the THUNDER. 30 seconds and above is a good distance.

Ok you are ready to shoot... you want a wide-angle lens - the stock 18-55 or 18-135 or whatever is a good lens for this. Set you focus to infinity or focus on something in the area where the lightning bolts are happening then switch your lens to manual so it doesn't keep hunting for focus. It will also be best if you have a shutter release cable of a remote control - this prevents camera shake from touching the camera.
Use an aperture of around 5.6 for starters and a low iso of 100.
Set your camera to BULB mode... not manual, not aperture priority and not shutter priority!
When you see the first flash press the button until a few more flashes have fired across the frame. You can have your shutter open anywhere from 30secs to 2 mins at a time. Then check the back of your lcd. If it's too dark then try a wider aperture or higher iso or longer exposure time and also do the opposite if they are too bright. Trial and error until you get it right. This are the rules for taking these shots at night.

If the storm is during the daytime then use these different rules -
Put your camera in SHUTTER PRIORITY mode.
Select a shutter speed of 1/15 to 1/4 of a second.
A low iso of 100 or 200 and then take some test shots to see the image is properly exposed.
Have a polarising filter or ND filter that will reduce the exposure and help slow down the shutter speed.
Then use the same rules as - when you see the first flash then you press the button.
Got to be honest day time ligning capture is harder than night time and can be a bit of hit and miss.

Hopefully this helps you figure things out.
Oh and its the opposite of high-speed photography - this is very slow speed photography.

Feraz:
Omoi shiro i!!! Thanks but it seems you and Prof are both assuming I'm talking about using a high ended camera. Don't have money for those now. Still using my pureview Lumia phone.

Feraz:
The bolded was what I did when I tried capturing lightening but it was just too fast. I set the camera on video mode and when it records any form of lightening, I then capture the image from there.

prof800:
ha! VillageBoi what took you so long?

VillageBoi:

Oga Prof, how now? A very Happy New Year to you and yours; may 2015 be prosperous and fabulous for you.
I've just not been on the site that much to be honest.

Nmeri17:
prof800 and villageboi abeg I wan enroll for una school of photography. how much per semester

prof800:

It is well.
oga like you....

prof800:
@Nmeri17, no sir.... just for fun.

Dannylux:
The picture of the bullet passing through the apple (i.e the first picture) is epic!

You follow @wtffacts? that's cool.

I love @uberfacts too, a very educative twitter handle.