There is nothing quite like the adrenaline rush of watching a severe thunderstorm roll across the sky. Tonight, a late-night summer storm rolled through Manhattan, producing some of the most striking, electric lightning strikes I have seen all season.
Capturing lightning on camera might look like pure luck or magic, but it actually comes down to patience, understanding exposure, and using the right technique.
If you have ever wanted to photograph lightning yourself, here is a step-by-step guide on how to safely capture the storm!
1. Safety First (No Shot is Worth a Strike)
Before talking camera settings, safety is non-negotiable. Lightning can strike miles ahead of a storm front.
- Never stand in an open field or under isolated tall trees.
- Shoot from shelter: Shoot from inside a covered porch, an open garage door, or from inside your vehicle using a window mount or tripod set up inside.
- Watch the radar: Know where the cell is moving so you are never caught off guard in the danger zone.
2. Essential Equipment for Lightning Photography
You do not need ultra-expensive gear, but a few basic tools are required to keep your exposures steady:
- A Sturdy Tripod: Sharp lightning shots require long exposures. You cannot handhold your camera for several seconds without introducing camera shake.
- A Manual Camera Body: You need full control over shutter speed, aperture, and ISO.
- A Remote Shutter Release or Intervalometer: Pressing the shutter button with your finger causes tiny vibrations. A cable release, wireless remote, or built-in intervalometer allows you to shoot continuously hands-free. If you do not have either of these tools, just set your camera timer to a 2 second delay.
3. Recommended Camera Settings
At night, the goal is to leave your shutter open long enough to “catch” a lightning strike when it fires naturally.
- Mode: Manual (M)
- Focus: Manual Focus (MF). Switch your lens to manual focus and set it to infinity ($\infty$), or focus on a distant treeline/building, then lock it so your camera doesn’t hunt in the dark.
- ISO: 100 or 200 (Keep it low to minimize noise and prevent the lightning bolt from blowing out to solid white). My high end camera body and lenses tend to create lots of banding in night sky photos, so I chose an ISO of 320 and turned off the long exposure noise reduction in camera.
- Aperture: f/8 to f/11 (This gives you a deep depth of field and keeps the light sharp rather than blindingly overexposed). Since I used a lower ISO, I increased my aperture to f/16.
- Shutter Speed: 4 to 10 seconds. Adjust your shutter speed based on ambient ambient light (streetlights, city glow, or moonlight). You also may need to make adjustments for how close the lightning is. This was quite the storm with painfully bright strikes! That required me to adjust my settings to avoid blowing out the details (and subsequently give up on capturing the fainter lightning strikes…worth it!)
4. The Secret Technique: Interval Shooting
You do not need lightning-fast reflexes to hit the shutter button the moment you see a flash. By the time your brain registers the flash, the strike is already over!
Instead, lock your camera onto a sturdy tripod, set your exposure (for example: f/8, ISO 100, 5-second shutter), and set your camera’s intervalometer to take photos back-to-back continuously.
By letting your camera cycle through 5-second exposures over 15 or 20 minutes, any lightning bolt that strikes during those open intervals will automatically record onto your sensor!
Here are a few lightning photos taken at Top of the World Drive in Manhattan, Kansas late on August 15th into the 16th (2026). I’ll include setting details in the captions.
