Lightning over Wassenaar, The Netherlands

The lightning bolt flashed through the air to the ground in Wassenaar.[/caption] During a storm in The Netherlands, this lightning bolt went down from the sky to the ground in Wassenaar. I managed to capture it from the safe location of my appartment in The Hague.

This picture was shot at night during a storm that went through The Netherlands in October 2014. It was a very intense storm and just over 2 in the morning the storm positioned in front of my appartment building looking towards Wassenaar. I placed my tripod next to the window and waited for the moment that a new lightning bolt would form.

The great thing about lightning is that -with the right settings or filters- you can leave the lens open for several seconds. In this case I left my lens open for 10 seconds with an ISO of 100 (to combat any grain) and an F number of 5. Nowadays I would probably go to an F-number of maybe 11 or 13, but at the day I was focussed on getting pictures with the lowest f-numbers possible. I also did not want to leave my lens open loner as 10 seconds because then the sky would become more of a blur. With a higher F-number I should have also raised my ISO to get to an exposure of about 10 seconds. Using a tripod to stabilize the shot and a remote trigger to keep my fingers away from the camera, I made the shot.

In post I lowered the highlights a little bit and raised the shadows. Just anough to see some more detail in the photo. That made this shot a great impulsive photo!

Camera settings:

Location