How to photograph lightning at night?

first of all, the equipment is used. Canon 1D camera and 17-4L/F4 lens are used. Shooting lightning is usually at night, so a sturdy tripod is also indispensable. Mine is the tripod of Manfrotto 19Pro and the pan-tilt of Manfrotto 141RC, and I used the original cable release of Canon. Everything is to minimize the impact of vibration on the picture and avoid blurred pictures after shooting, which is the most taboo for shooting night scenes. Secondly, let's talk about lightning. If you want to shoot lightning, you need to know some basic knowledge about the appearance of lightning. Before shooting lightning, we must find out the law of lightning activity through observation, so as to make preparations. Why do we need to observe the law of lightning activity before shooting? As we all know, the appearance of lightning has its instability. One moment here, the other moment there, the photographer is confused and in a hurry, and no lightning is caught. Secondly, the light of lightning is different every time, sometimes it is bright, sometimes it is not bright enough, and it is intermittent. During exposure, the exposure should be controlled according to its different brightness, so as to avoid the loss of main details caused by overexposure or the bleak picture caused by serious underexposure, and so on. Generally speaking, lightning often appears between thunder. After the next burst of thunder, lightning will come faster and it will flash faster. I observed it and found that some very bright and powerful lightning are repetitive, and will appear again in a certain time interval. After finding the general direction, we can set up the triangle and camera and prepare for our thrilling lightning shooting. Ready to shoot, naturally need to talk about the camera settings in general. Because of the uncertainty and rapidity of lightning, we are unlikely to wait until we see lightning before pressing the shutter, so the probability of catching lightning is almost zero. So we usually need to use a small aperture, f/16, f/19 or f/22, and then set the exposure to the B gate, so that we can make different exposures according to lightning with different brightness and distance. Last night's shooting, my settings were basically maintained at the aperture of f19, the shutter between 15 and 3 seconds, ISO1, using MF, and I chose to shoot at infinity. When I determined the general direction of lightning, I set the camera and put my hand on cable release to get ready. Generally, lightning is coherent. When you see lightning or lightning light in the distance or behind you, it is very likely that lightning will also appear nearby, so you can press the shutter at this time. If you are lucky, a strong flash will appear soon after you press it. This is happy! Of course, there are also failures, that is, the lightning does not appear for a long time or appears in other directions. Fortunately, the digital camera is used, so you can see the results immediately, and delete them immediately if you are not satisfied. If it has been exposed for more than 15 seconds before the lightning appears, then after the lightning flashes, the shutter can be released in one second. Generally, the brightness of the lightning is just right, and the city background will not be overexposed and become pale. Because I live in the city center, the city lights are very strong, which gives me a lot of trouble in controlling exposure. Either lightning exposure is appropriate, but the city lights are overexposed, or lightning is very bright. In order to prevent lightning overexposure, the exposure time is shortened, and the city background is too dim. At this time, I chose to be a little less exposed in the urban background and strive to highlight the main body (lightning). In addition to these so-called experiences mentioned above, the rest is luck. It is undeniable that taking lightning is also very important. Master some basic knowledge and have some luck. Let's all try to capture the wonders of nature.