lightning and meteors

I'm headed for a gulf coast beach next week! While we've had a very warm summer in the northwest this year the beaches here will NEVER be gulf beaches. :p

I'm hoping to catch some Perseid meteor showers on that nice dark beach and maybe some thunderstorm shots (forecast is hot and humid with a chance of thunderstorms almost every day).

I'll have my a6000 and a6300 with me. I understand a nice wide lens is what I want for stars, I have a 12-18 wide lens or my favorite 18-135. My tripod and remote will be with me too.

Any suggestions, tips, ideas would be greatly appreciated!

Vic

Meteors. Tripod. All the aperture you have available. ISO6400 (A6300) and 30 sec exposures to minimize star trails.

I love in Southern California. I don't know lightning.

Dave

Exactly. We've been on the west coast for 9+ out of the last 11 years. A short stint in Arizona, where there are some incredibly powerful storms, but I wouldn't be outside taking pictures in them! Texas usually provides some good opportunities in the summertime. Is the star trail app easy to use?

Vic

Exactly. We've been on the west coast for 9+ out of the last 11 years. A short stint in Arizona, where there are some incredibly powerful storms, but I wouldn't be outside taking pictures in them! Texas usually provides some good opportunities in the summertime. Is the star trail app easy to use?

 

Vic

If you are shooting for meteors, you want to minimize the trails to display the streaks of the meteors. #0 sec is about as long as you can go with a fairly wide angle lens without trails starting to form.

For star trails, I did 1 min exposures back to back with no long exposure noise reduction (adds a minute in between for every minute exposed) using an intervalometer. The star trail stacker program was way too easy to use.

Dave

The easiest way to catch lightening is with a tripod and a long long exposure. Set up your scene, pick a small aperture and a long exposure and then let the lightening strikes paint into your scene. That is the old way, a newer way is to invest in a lightening trigger that will fire the shutter quickly enough to capture the lightening. The human and and eye are not so great for that kind of capture.