For those who’ve ever tried to {photograph} lightning throughout the daytime, you already know it’s virtually not possible. By the point you press the shutter button, it’s gone. That’s why lightning triggers, whereas no assure of success, exist. However the addition of the brand new “Pre-release” characteristic within the Nikon Z9 mirrorless digital camera now makes these triggers out of date. It ensures success, as I came upon final week.
Over the past half-dozen years I’ve been working small-group pictures journeys to locations round america. Sedona, Arizona, with many nice places close by, reasonable summer time climate, and a superb probability for storms has been excessive on my record of “have to do a workshop there.” Final week I lastly did, and it was pretty much as good as I’d hoped. Nevertheless it was the thunderstorm we watched Thursday night that resulted in a brand new “Aha!” second for me.
Amongst the various options added to the Nikon Z9 with the discharge of firmware 2.0, “Pre-release” was an eye-opener for motion photographers. It permits you to wait till you see the motion, then press the shutter button and seize the moments earlier than you pressed. It actually modifications how you’re employed, but it surely wasn’t till I used to be on my strategy to Sedona, and fascinated by the potential for lightning, that I spotted I may reap the benefits of Pre-release for that.
Whereas we had some lightning the primary night time, whereas I used to be working a low-level lighting demonstration, capturing lightning throughout a time publicity is fairly straightforward. It wasn’t till a few days later that we had lightning throughout daylight. That’s rather a lot harder to shoot.
Returning to Sedona from one other shoot for sundown, I took my group as much as Airport Mesa, the place there’s a pleasant overlook. Our aim was to {photograph} that final hour of daylight on the mountains throughout from us, however a storm rolled in. Whereas it blocked a lot of the solar, it additionally gave us a lightning present. And that’s after I turned on Pre-release.
Whenever you do this, and press midway down on the shutter button, the digital camera begins recording pictures at 30 frames-per-second in a steady loop to inside reminiscence (not the cardboard). Whenever you see motion occur, then you definitely push the shutter fully down and the digital camera information that final one second, half second, or one-third second of motion from the loop onto the cardboard (you select the quantity). In different phrases, it goes again in time to seize one thing that’s already occurred. And it made photographing lightning extremely straightforward.
To try this, I saved the digital camera as much as my eye, and every time I noticed lightning pressed the shutter down absolutely. And every time I ended up with lightning photos. Notice the plural. Usually I’d find yourself with a number of lightning images from one flash, and one time I even had ten frames.
So what’s the catch? I can’t shoot RAW, because the digital camera routinely switches to JPEG, though nonetheless with the full-resolution 45-megapixels. There’s additionally an choice to shoot at 120 frames-per-second, though at a diminished 11-megapixels. However nonetheless, wow.
After all, for now, lightning triggers nonetheless have a market, since there are only a few cameras that may do that. However for these of us fortunate sufficient to have a Nikon Z9, that’s one much less accent they’ll be tempted to purchase.
Concerning the writer: Reed Hoffmann is a photographer and pictures teacher who has been within the photograph business for many years and who has used each Nikon DSLR (and taught most of them). The opinions expressed on this article are solely these of the writer. Comply with together with Hoffmann’s newest workshops right here. It’s also possible to discover extra of Hoffmann’s work and writing on his web site, Fb, Instagram, and Twitter. This text was additionally revealed right here.
Picture credit: Header lightning photograph by Flash Dantz. All different images by Reed Hoffmann.
