topic Re: How to capture images of lightning bugs in General Discussion

How to capture images of lightning bugs

stevet1 — Fri, 27 Jun 2025 12:13:18 GMT

A couple of years ago, I saw a phenomona that is going on tonight.

Hundreds, if not thousands of lightning bugs emerge from the ground and simultaneously flash their lights in a synchronized light show about a foot off the ground.

I wish I knew how to capture that. The wonder of it takes your breath away.

Steve Thomas

Re: Lightning bugs

jrhoffman75 — Fri, 27 Jun 2025 12:12:09 GMT

@stevet1 wrote:

A couple of years ago, I saw a phenomona that is going on tonight.

Hundreds, if not thousands of lightning bugs emerge from the ground and simultaneously flash their lights in a synchronized light show about a foot off the ground.

I wish I knew how to capture that. The wonder of it takes your breath away.

Steve Thomas

You might try recording a video and the extracting a frame that has the lights showing.

Re: How to capture images of lightning bugs

shadowsports — Fri, 27 Jun 2025 12:26:29 GMT

Steve,

I like John's idea, I think it would be cool to have a video. For stills, it might be helpful to shoot in servo. Try shooting aperture priority at F4. Depending on how bright it is, you'll get a shutter speed of 1/125th - 1/500. Hold real still, maybe even use a tripod. Start there and see what happens. Post some shots for us 😊

Re: How to capture images of lightning bugs

Tintype_18 — Fri, 27 Jun 2025 13:04:09 GMT

Lightning bugs are rare around my home. Used to have thousands on the old family farm in Ohio. FWIW, the Great Smoky Mountains National park has a phenomenon of syncronized fireflies who flash at the same time! One needs reservations to gain admittance for the event; https://www.nps.gov/grsm/learn/nature/fireflies.htm.

Post any photo you have. Good idea for the video and isolate one frame.

Re: How to capture images of lightning bugs

stevet1 — Fri, 27 Jun 2025 16:31:05 GMT

Thanks guys. I'll have to give it a try.

I know I can take a 4k video and extract individual frames in camera.

I also have some 3rd party video to jpg converter software I could use.

Since it's dusk, I'll have to work out the settings, but even at 24fps and a shutter speed of 1/50th or 1/60th, with a high enough ISO, it should work.

Steve Thomas