Photograph Summer Storms With Your Samsung Kit

Image by David Clapp 

Unfortunately the British summer won't always guarantee days on end of fabulous sunshine. But the weather can throw up some interesting subjects to photograph with your Samsung camera. So, next time you see a storm brewing, grab a camera and have a go at shooting these summer storm related subjects:

Stormclouds

When a storm is on the approach, there are often impressive, moody, brooding clouds in the distance. These can give rise to brilliant landscapes. Let the sky take up two-thirds of the image as it will be the main focal point, and head out to somewhere flat to make the most of the textured sky. Converting the image to black and white can sometimes help to make the sky pop more, too. 

Thunder and lightning

With a summer storm often comes the thunder and lightning. If you have a good view of the sky from your house, it can be worth setting up your kit to try and capture the lightning as it strikes. A long exposure will need to be used to increase your chances of capturing the lightning, so you'll need to set your camera up on a tripod to avoid shake. It's often more difficult to capture lightning in the day without overexposing the image so an evening storm is ideal. You can reverse the process of waiting for lightning to predict thunder to gauge roughly when lightning might strike. 

Splashes and puddles

Summer storms often mean really heavy rain for a short period of time. This is a great opportunity to capture the raindrops splashing onto the floor, or the garden water feature, and creating some great abstract patterns as they do so. Use a fast shutter speed to freeze the drops as they hit and fall. Shooting from under shelter with no windows will be the best option for this technique but if that's not possible you'll either have to brave the elements or open a window but make sure your kit is in a waterproof sleeve.  

Raindrops on flowers

Summer brings the addition of lots of beautiful flowers to the garden and when it rains this can provide opportunity for some more alternative and abstract shots of their blooms. Use macro mode to get up close and personal to the petals and photograph them just after the storm has passed to capture the raindrops on their surface. 

Rainbows 

When the storm passes the sun might break through the clouds and in the daytime this can give rise to rainbows. To give them an extra colour boost, set your white balance to the 'cloudy' setting to give richer tones.