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Lightning shooting
  • So I have been shooting lightning storms with GH4 in 4K video.

    Is there easier way to find those lightning frames from the video than watch the whole video frame by frame? I have about 2 hours of footage and that would be very boring. Maybe some kind of analyzer software that shows when there's big changes in exposure or something?

  • 4 Replies sorted by
  • Well never mind, seems that the lightnings are ruined by the rolling shutter. I was a bit afraid of this, but still hoped that at least some lightnings would be ok.

    If I would increase shutter time, would it disable the rolling shutter effect?

    Or do I need to use stills? I guess then using time lapse would be the other way, but then it's more about luck because it's possible that the lightning is in between of pictures.

    rolling_shutter.jpg
    3840 x 2160 - 784K
  • If you are looking for stills, the best way to capture them is to shoot timelapses at 20-30 second exposures!

    I captured this using that technique with the gh4

    P1160320.jpg
    900 x 600 - 151K
  • @tylerknight Do you keep long shutter noise reduction on or off? I have it on and it seems that it takes the picture e.g. 10 seconds and then there's additional 10 second delay, at least when long shutter NS reduction is on. Then it's again luck if you the lightning happens when the camera is thinking, not taking picture.

  • I have it turned off and do all of my noise reduction in post! Keep in mind you will need several frames with the body cap or lens cap on for the sensor noise reduction.

    I regret not doing it for my lightning shot as there is a lot of noise that can't be removed without a few black frames for reference.