Posted: 3/7/2016 8:01:25 PM EDT
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Looking to take some neat pics of nighttime shooting and figured a lightning shutter trigger would work well. I've seen as cheap as $80 on amazon, to $300+. I don't figure I need that fancy of one, but...then again I have no idea. Anyone use one, have any good reviews, or features you like? ETA: Camera is a D90 |
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A better method would be to use the intervalometer that's probably built into your camera. Set focus to infinity (or focus before it gets dark), set up on a tripod, choose something like F/8, ISO200 and a 150-20 second exposure.
I usually run mine for 1-2 hours, and the only down time is the interval when it's cycling between shots. Results:  DSC_4337_SuperBolt-lzn by FredMan, on Flickr
 DSC_4833_ThreeFingersBolt-lzn by FredMan, on Flickr
Or you could just stand out there with continuous shooting and bang away, hoping you get something. That's how I got these daylight bolts. 
Not to say a lightning trigger wouldn't be nice to have, but for night-time shooting it's a lot easier and cheaper to use the intervalometer. |
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Oh, I read LIGHTNING when you said NIGHTIME.
Considering that, I still think the intervalometer would work, but I'd set the shutter to something like 1 second instead (or heck, you could even shotern it down to 1/60 and I bet it would work. Hmm... Might be something to try out!). |
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Quoted:
Looking to take some neat pics of nighttime shooting and figured a lightning shutter trigger would work well. I've seen as cheap as $80 on amazon, to $300+. I don't figure I need that fancy of one, but...then again I have no idea. Anyone use one, have any good reviews, or features you like? ETA: Camera is a D90 We need some clarification on what you are looking for: night-time vs lightning. |
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Sorry for the confusion. This is what I'm after. We went out and got some cool night shots of muzzle blast. I was shooting around 2.5 second exposure, so was basically using the muzzle blast as the flash. It got some good results, but I was thinking using a lighting sensor to capture this with a much smaller exposure time, hopefully giving a bit better detail, or just the beginning of the muzzle flash. Anyone toyed with this? Do you think it will get me better results than this?  Even got a bat in the frame  |
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Quoted: Sorry for the confusion. This is what I'm after. We went out and got some cool night shots of muzzle blast. I was shooting around 2.5 second exposure, so was basically using the muzzle blast as the flash. It got some good results, but I was thinking using a lighting sensor to capture this with a much smaller exposure time, hopefully giving a bit better detail, or just the beginning of the muzzle flash. Anyone toyed with this? Do you think it will get me better results than this? http://i296.photobucket.com/albums/mm177/nate4635/DSC_6510_zpsltt7zyuh.jpg Even got a bat in the frame May I use that picture as my new facebook profile pic?  |
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Quoted:
Sorry for the confusion. This is what I'm after. We went out and got some cool night shots of muzzle blast. I was shooting around 2.5 second exposure, so was basically using the muzzle blast as the flash. It got some good results, but I was thinking using a lighting sensor to capture this with a much smaller exposure time, hopefully giving a bit better detail, or just the beginning of the muzzle flash. Anyone toyed with this? Do you think it will get me better results than this? http://i296.photobucket.com/albums/mm177/nate4635/DSC_6510_zpsltt7zyuh.jpg Even got a bat in the frame
If I was trying to take pictures like that, I'd just use continuous release and coordinate a bit with the shooter. No special equipment required. This depends on your camera and whether or not it can shoot at a decent frame rate though. |
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I guess what I was thinking...and heres where you guys correct me if I'm wrong... Is that I'd like to capture the instance where lets say the fireball wasn't complete, but just starting. I'm not really sure if thats possible, as the whole flash is a very short duration. We tried a bit with counting 3..2..1...shoot, but then just put it on a longer exposure and nearly every shot was a good pic. I'm happy with what we got, but the previous pic posted was likely one of the best. Here is one thats a little more blurry.  |
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Before I invested in a lightning trigger (looks like I'm seeing them for $150-$250) I might just try something like manual focusing, ISO200, F/8, 1/100 and set the frame rate to continuous high.
Then the shooter gets busy and mag dumps. The photographer just keeps the shutter down. You'll get a lot of discards, but you'll also probably get some good shots. |
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The problem with just going "continuous" and firing away is that if you are shooting at 1/100 of a second, and lets pick 10 frames per second for easy math, you will have covered about 10/100 of a second (or 1/10). That means that 90% of the time, you are not actually capturing. And if you increase the shutter speed, it gets far worse. If you can make it favorable by opening the shutter longer. You can probably make it better with a flash - maybe a rear-synch flash on a long-ish exposure.
I have found that I get more shots in continuous situations based on practice than "fire and forget" in situations where you want a very small snapshot of time (bat/golfclub hitting a ball for example). But regardless, it is shooting and photography. Doing both for "practice" is a lot of fun. You can delete the misses almost as you go. -shooter |
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Quoted:
The problem with just going "continuous" and firing away is that if you are shooting at 1/100 of a second, and lets pick 10 frames per second for easy math, you will have covered about 10/100 of a second (or 1/10). That means that 90% of the time, you are not actually capturing. And if you increase the shutter speed, it gets far worse. If you can make it favorable by opening the shutter longer. You can probably make it better with a flash - maybe a rear-synch flash on a long-ish exposure. I have found that I get more shots in continuous situations based on practice than "fire and forget" in situations where you want a very small snapshot of time (bat/golfclub hitting a ball for example). But regardless, it is shooting and photography. Doing both for "practice" is a lot of fun. You can delete the misses almost as you go. -shooter Correct. But every once in a while you get what you want. This frame was the main keeper out of probably 150 exposures. But digital photography, once you get the gear, is essentially free.  DSC_2738_Ralph-M1-Ejection-lzn by FredMan, on Flickr
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