In The Wild
Aug 3, 2021
If you're looking to learn how to photograph lightning with GoPro, you've come to the right place! We've asked GoPro Family member and experienced storm watcher Kyle Wicks to share his top tips and tricks for lightning photography. Since GoPro is waterproof out of the box, Kyle says it's naturally one of the best cameras for the job (because, majority of the time, lightning = rain). Well let him take it from here ...
Hello ya'll! My name is Kyle Wicks. I'm from a small town called Chatham, situated in Ontario, Canada. Being surrounded by the countless forests, lakes and trails that are in Southern Ontario, I have always had an immense passion for exploring and being active in the great outdoors.
Ever since picking up my first GoPro back in 2016, the HERO4 Silver, I have been hooked on capturing the beauty and power of Mother Nature through the ever-changing lens of GoPro.
Here are some of my favorite tips and tricks on capturing one of natures finest shows-a summer lightning storm!
1. Learn To Read Weather Patterns. First and foremost, to chase down and even have the opportunity to capture a storm, you should start watching your local weather forecast and learn to read and navigate what's on the weather radar system. This will allow you to watch the storm cells forming and coming in, which will you determine the right location and timing.
Getting ahead of the system will put you in front of the storm to beat the heavy rainfall that usually comes with lightning; this helps a lot with nailing some clean images before the downpour and harsher conditions hit.
I like to get ahead of the storm as much as I can, allowing myself time to set up my GoPro equipment and scout out photo compositions and ideas long before the storm gets overhead. It doesn't always play out like that, as cells can pop up out of nowhere, but be alert for the best results.
For the shot above, I was able to do just that. I watched the radar system as the day played out and put myself in position along this field in front of the storm cell to give myself a bit of time to dial in my GoPro and nail a few shots of the lightning before getting caught in the downpour.
Settings:
Camera: HERO9 Black
Mode: Night Photo
Shutter: 15 sec
White Balance: 5500K
ISO Min Max: 100
Color: GoPro
Sharpness: Low
Output: RAW
PRO TIP: Download The Weather Network app which is available globally to watch your latest forecast and tune into the radar section of the app to keep up to date live as the storm systems roll in.
2. Grab The Right Gear. With this particular storm pictured above, it came in at the late hours of the night so I was shooting in pitch darkness. With that being said, anything from the HERO4 model to HERO9 Black is capable of snagging this type of photo with the use of a long exposure image, called a Night Photo on GoPro.
When shooting in Night Photo mode, every time you click the camera, your shutter stays open for an extended period of time (as opposed to quickly opening and closing for a regular photo taken in ample lighting). Because of this, you need your GoPro to be completely still during this process. That's where having a sturdy and reliable tripod or mount comes into play.
My go-to for this type of shot is setting up the Shorty tripod or bringing out the Jaws Gooseneck combo to give me a lot of different choices when clamping to things out in the field. Both of these mounts keep the camera completely still.
For this image, I clamped my Jaws on a nearby fence pole, ensuring my GoPro was completely stable when taking my photos of the approaching storm.
Also, I always recommend setting your photo output to RAW. Shooting RAW (as opposed to JPEG) enables your GoPro to capture all the image data recorded in the sensor and ensures you are producing the highest quality photo. And when you're editing in post, you will be able to fluctuate your image more with all the data captured-great color correction is key to awesome lightning and landscape images!
Settings:
Camera: HERO4 Black
Mode: Night Photo
Shutter: 5 sec
White Balance: 5500K
ISO: 100
PRO TIP: Use The Remote to trigger your capture to eliminate any potential movement from pushing the shutter button. Alternatively, you can set a shutter timer to delay either 3 or 10 seconds after you click the record button
3. Perfect Long Exposure on GoPro. Now that you're a weather forecasting pro and have the proper gear, let's focus on settings. As I stated above, when shooting lightning storms at night with GoPro, you will want to be in Night Photo Mode-a.k.a. shooting long exposure shots. I always try to arrive early to test exposure times, and I have found 5-15 second exposures being the most efficient for storms and lightning strikes. But, don't be afraid to try longer given the conditions.
Once my settings are good, instead of clicking the shutter one after another in Night Photo, I will transfer the exact settings over to start to a Night Lapse Photo with the interval set to auto. This means my camera will continuously be shooting because you never know what's going to happen in the night sky during a storm.
I also like shooting in Night Lapse Photo because you get a variety of single shots, AND you have the opportunity to merge multiple images together for photo or video use while post-editing.
In the photo above, I was able to merge together two images from the same night lapse. One photo with the car trail and strike, and another that had lightning on the upper part of the shot. After capturing the images, I added both into Photoshop as layers after color correcting them. Then, I was able to grab out the lightning from each photo using masks and the brush tool to round out the final photo.
Settings:
Camera: HERO9 Black
Mode: Night Lapse Pho
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In The Wild 
