Hand steadied or tripod?

I guess it was manually holding down the shutter release?

Hmmm... It seems you have been mislead, 100 or 200 film is optimal film for lightning photography if not a little fast! You need get some 50 speed film and just keep the shutter open untill you see a lightning strike. That should leave you with a good photo.

I know this is old hat, but if you want to shoot some good night time shots, I would suggest finding a light meter and use it for your exposures....it will give you a starting point for aperture and shutterspeed....although shutterspeed seems a bit of a misnomer since you will be using the "bulb" setting and using that locking cable release, if you have one....once you have shot and processec a few, you will have a better feel for what you can expect.......don't go for the high speed film unless you can accept the "grainyness" which comes from that. Since its been a while since I have shot night images, I'm not sure what kind of colour saturation you may get from the higher ISO (ASA) numbers. My fav was always Kodak KR-64 (slide film) for the best images, but then not too many people still like to shoot transparencies these days.

Oops, seems like I may be rambling again  ......ease off now Ken, these guys may not like too much info at once. 

just one thing, if you plan to focus on long exposures, a digital camera of any sort probably wouldnt be a good idea... they normally create a good amount of noise after a couple seconds from what i have heard

Nice shots... Puke-ish color, but neat anyway.

Quote:

In my experience, F4 isn't the sharpest aperture setting for most lenses......usually F-8 is the one I use as it will allow a better depth of field and generally hold a sharper image, ......test with you own hardware to find what is the optimum for your camera......the value of a light meter is that it will enable you to know how long you can hold the shutter open, without over-exposing your image......even in the dark, you can still get too much light over time.....its all about exposure value, and (virtual) film speed...... when in doubt, test, test, and test again to get a constant, for your own machinery.....

To achieve success in photography, KNOW YOUR CAMERA !............once you understand all the basic principles of photography, that is.......

I always used to shoot on either really low speed film (25 or 50 Speed) or on slides.  Some of my best lightning shots were not done by snapping at the right time, but by framing the subject I wanted, opening the shutter for 30 seconds or so, and catching the strikes that way.  It was sucsessful a lot more than you might think it would be.  I also tended to get several strikes in a shot instead of just one.