Golden hour and blue hour are usually considered to be the best times of day where we find the perfect natural lighting to capture beautiful images, no matter what the genre or photography. If you are someone that likes to break the rules, weather photography might just be your forte! Weather and storm chasing photography is one such genre of photography where it does not matter how bad the weather conditions are. In fact, the worse the weather the better the opportunity for capturing incredible storm and weather photos.
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What is weather and storm chasing photography?
Weather and storm chasing photography is the genre of photography that captures weather in all conditions from calm scenes right through to destructive outbreaks. Most people would think of weather photography as being synonymous with photographing lightning or storm chasing. However, weather photography is not only limited to capturing extreme events; it can be anything from a clear sunny sky to a dark moonlit area, and from a serene windless garden to a complete blizzard and explosion of severe storms.
Weather systems can produce incredible lightining displays. Set the lens to manual mode, focus at infinity and set a shutter speed of between 2 and 30 seconds.
Tornado alley
The central US severe storm region known as Tornado Alley is bounded by the Appalachian Mountains to the east, the Rocky Mountains to the west and spans from the Gulf of Mexico to Canada. This area of the US is renowned for producing incredibly powerful and massive super-cell thunderstorms that spawn tornadoes and severe weather. A perfect location for the seasoned storm chaser, but not by a long shot the only place in the world where incredible weather photographs can be captured.
The most interesting weather photography thrives when the weather goes extreme. The worst weather conditions bring out the best of the possibilities of creativity for all weather and storm chase photographers.
Storm chasing and weather photography is not really a career that a good income can be derived from, however some are full time meteorologists that spend time chasing storms.
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How to go become a storm chaser
If you are new at trying your hand at weather photography, here are a few ideas to get you on the right path to achieving great weather photographs.
The National Weather Service has a storm spotter program called SYKWARN where you can learn more about storm chasing and how you can use your knowledge to warn others.
Weather forecast updates
Weather photography is largely dependent upon climatic conditions which can be quite unpredictable. Following a reliable weather forecast source will allow you to plan your weather photo session better. It will give you an idea of when and what type of weather is coming your way. This will get you some way towards successfully planning the locations for the shoot.
Some official weather forecast agencies include:
- Australia: Bureau of Meteorology
- Canada: Environment Canada
- New Zealand: Met Service
- UK: Met Office
- USA: National Weather Service
Places to try out weather photography
If you don’t know where to start, here are a few places and techniques to try out weather photography!
Open spaces
Open gardens, grounds, and fields can provide a great view for all kinds of weather and storm photography. Especially if you are planning to capture bad weather such as rainfall, lightning and storm cloud systems. It will give you a lot more opportunity to frame great compositions, but as always, never put yourself in danger by getting too close to any extreme weather event, especially during lightning storms and tornado events.
Street photography
Sometimes just being out in the street to capture rain as it falls or the wet surface of roads and reflections in puddles after a rain event has passed can work out great. Practicing street photography during bad weather can give you a completely different perspective. Reflective objects, windows and plants with dew on them, people all dressed in a particular type of clothing, streets drenched with water to experiment with reflections, the possibilities are almost endless!
Composition
Try to allow yourself plenty of time to assess a location for when you arrive. Having an object in the foreground such as a barn, lake or trees will add an element of depth, and possibly drama, to your weather photography composition.
Sometimes it is just the luck of the draw, especially when photographing lightning. You may get lucky with an overhead lightning shot that fills the frame with electricity, but alas that means you are way too close to the action. Don’t put yourself in harm’s way whilst photographing weather and extreme storm events.
Time lapse in weather and storm chasing photography
Another fantastic way to create pleasing weather compositions is by creating a time lapse. A time lapse is where you take many photographs of the weather event over time, then play them back in order over a shorter period in video format. Weather time lapse compositions can look stunning and tell a compelling story of the weather event when executed properly.
Show off your best weather and storm photography on social media
Show off your best storm chasing and weather photography on your website and social media accounts such as TikTok, Facebook and Instagram. The technical considerations and thrill of creating great weather and storm photography is appreciated by many social viewers.
Use the right gear
Using the right equipment will help you capture the right photographs at the perfect time.
Lens choices for weather photography
A zoom lens is an important part of your weather photography kit to successfully capture weather events from a distance, and a wide-angle lens is a must-have for photographing large close-by storm systems.
Tripod
A sturdy tripod is essential, especially if you are going to capture weather shots at night where long exposure photos may be necessary.
Triggers
A wired or wireless remote trigger are both perfect for ensuring vibrations are reduced when taking long exposure weather photographs whilst using a tripod. As for whether wired is better than wireless or visa versa, there are some of trade-offs with each.
A wireless trigger will be more expensive, will have an antenna that may occasionally get in the way when changing camera settings, but the advantages are that you don’t need to be close to the camera to trigger the shutter. Meaning you could be metres away, concentrating on the weather patterns or lightning direction when you trigger the remote. The Miops Smart+ camera trigger will make it possible to remotely trigger the camera shutter to capture the elusive daytime lightning strikes on camera.
Wired triggers usually have a connected wire up to 1m in length. The disadvantages are that you will need to remain within the distance of the length of the cable from the camera. Advantages of a wired intervalometer are that they are usually cheaper than wireless and are not affected by electromagnetic interference.
Another type of wireless trigger is a smart phone operated remote trigger such as the Pluto Trigger. The advantage with the Pluto Trigger is it has a larger range of features that allow the user to customise the trigger in greater detail. Disadvantage is that the user will be limited to the battery life of their phone.
Filters
A variable density neutral density (ND) filter with a large stop-range such as an ND 2-400 will allow the weather photographer to lengthen the shutter speeds to capture daytime weather events such as lightning. The ease of capturing lightning using an ND filter is not as good as using the Miops trigger, however the advantages of an ND filter is that you can be more artistically creative by using longer exposures during the daytime.
A circular polarizing filter (CPL) will assist in producing dramatic contrast in brightness and colours. For example, when shooting a storm cell in the distance with bright blue sky above. It will darken the sky and produce a more dramatic composition.
Accessories
A rain and dust-proof cover is important to protect your expensive gear, along with an umbrella (not recommended for use during lightning storms) and cleaning cloths.
Focus
When photographing weather systems at night set the lens to focus at infinity manually. This will resolve any focusing issues that you may run into when the lens can’t autofocus in the dark. Do a couple of test shots first and zoom-in on the photograph to ensure the focus is set correctly. Some lenses, when manually turned all the way to infinity, actually go slightly past that and instead of tack-sharp at infinity, regress to an unfocussed blur. This tip is also especially important in astrophotography.
ISO
Selecting the right ISO will be determined by the lighting conditions. Try to keep ISO as low as possible to maintain sharp detail in weather events such as lightning. Of course, you will need to increase the ISO in the dark of night!
Shutter speed
As mentioned earlier, in the trigger topic, the weather circumstances will determine the shutter speed. For example, if photographing lightning during the day with a Miops trigger the shutter speed may be as fast as 1/1000 but photographing lightning during darkness you may find 30-second exposures perfect.
When photographing general storms and weather events during the day, keep the shutter speed relevant to your scene. If it is an overcast scene there is no sense in keeping an ISO of 100 if the shutter speed is going to be 1/25 sec, hand-held. This will only result in blur due to camera shake and will be especially visible in the image if the storm action is a long way into the distance.
Battery life in extreme temperatures
The performance of the batteries that power your camera and other gear can be affected by both cold and hot weather. When batteries are cold their performance is degraded due to the reaction of chemicals that store and produce power slowing down. During extreme cold a battery’s life can be reduced by up to half. To help preserve battery life during extreme cold, keep them warm (keep spares in your pocket if possible, to keep their temperature at an acceptable 20-25C), and also reduce any unnecessary power usage on your camera such as WiFi and live view.
Likewise, the performance of batteries can be degraded during extremely high temperatures. The reaction of chemicals in the battery are pronounced, producing a higher amount of power, which in turn shortens the battery life. In extremely high temperatures outdoors try to keep them cool, such as in a temperate gel pack or ice pack.
Aperture when shooting distant weather events
Most of the time when photographing weather events we photograph them from a large distance away, so setting an aperture to “keep everything in focus” becomes slightly irrelevant for weather and storm chasing photography. There is a distance where at some point every lens and aperture setting combination, no matter the length, will have everything in focus. That distance is called the hyperfocal near distance limit and is affected by the aperture selection.
However, aperture becomes extremely important in controlling light in a weather scene. Avoid using f/2.8 for everything! When photographing weather start with f/8.0 and then experiment with wider or narrower apertures from there. A narrower aperture such as f/8.0 and above is better for photographing lighting over f/2.8 because it will slightly mute the much brighter lightning bolt and streamers and will reduce the chance of overexposing the central parts of the lightning bolt. As you change the aperture from f/8.0 to higher the shutter speed will get longer unless you change the ISO, so a tripod will be extremely useful.
Weather and storm chasing photography safety
The safety of you and your photography companions during storm chasing photography cannot be underestimated. Your safety is paramount.
Take shelter in a safe place such as inside a vehicle or building. Never stand or take shelter under a tree as that can be one of the worst places to shelter. Don’t use an umbrella during a lightning storm. Keep an eye on the local meteorological weather bureau radar so that you know which way the storm is coming from, and you may be able to tell if you are going to be hit directly and keep as large a distance between you and the storm as possible.
Post-process lightning stack techniques
If you have used a tripod for lightning photography and all photos have the same composition, you can use a post-processing technique called lightning stacking to layer all lightning shots onto one single photo. This will result in an incredibly beautiful composite shot of the sky filled with all the lightning bolts from all shots.
Process all photos as you would normally, then open all images stacked on top of each other in layers in Photoshop. Then starting from the top photo change its blending mode to lighten. Do this for all photos in the stack, and as you do, you’ll see the brighter sections of each photo (the lightning) will accumulate in the composite until you have all lightning shots in the one image.
Final words on weather and storm chasing photography
Weather photography may just provide some excellent, and a one-in-a-million shot, but it can’t be forgotten that it may involve a great deal of risk for photographers as well. All weather and storm chasing photographers should ensure they have proper safety gear for themselves and their equipment before going shooting in adverse weather conditions.
Have fun with storm chasing and weather photography!
There is so much to see in our world - don't miss out on anything, especially with weather and storm chasing photography.