I want to take a photograph of the blue bolt that jumps from the finger when touching a grounded metal object. I began attempting this last night and realized how difficult of a task it was.

I've searched the internet and found no evidence of someone successfully taking a photograph like this before.

Any suggestions or words of advice? I started off trying 2 and 5 second exposures in a dark room, and shocking a vent while the camera is pointed at it from the side. The camera was on a tripod of course.

All I have gotten so far is a blue blur. Please, feel welcome to try it yourself :)

The difficulty you are going to have is that when you take photos under low lighting conditions, the shutter needs to stay open longer in order to absorb enough light, whereas you are wanting it to stay open only for a very short time in order to capture the spark in sharp detail. Not sure of the best way to overcome this...

How are you focusing, and triggering your shutter?

Since you are talking a very small discharge with minimal light, I would turn up your ISO at least 800. The shutter only needs to be open during the event. Any longer exposure beyond the duration of discharge will result in noise. OR Don't try this.

I dont really know what I'm talking about but your right on keeping the shutter open for a few seconds. The reason its a 'blue blurr' is because:

1) its blue
2) did you pre-focus (correctly)? Using Manual focus, test shot, etc., etc...
3) are you overexposing? (manual mode)
4) Get closer. (macro lens)
5) is your lens is covered with fingerprints?
6) the bolt is moving during the shot and it's nearly impossible to get a clear image, unless you used a sound/light trigger of some sort and a ridiculously short shutter speed.

Or ... buy/make a tesla coil, or buy/make a van de graff generator (which seems to produce a more boring arc)

Lets see... I focussed with the lights on... and was focussed on a spot roughly a meter away from the lens and zoomed in 3x. I was by myself so I used a self-timer to ensure that my hitting the button wouldn't effect the long exposure.

My lens is clean, and I haven't tried this yet with a macro.

The ISO was on Auto, so I'll have to try altering that.

I guess if I was able to get assistance, I might be able to try using a more brief shutter speed? I'll keep you posted.

I'd start with trying to underexpose (by ISO or aperture) a little more.

And after trying that, I'd give up. haha.

The blue blur indicates a vastly overexposed image. The camera is probably trying to expose the dark room as mid grey hence the overexposure. So I’d set the camera to everything manual then the camera can’t compensate for your changes. Set your minimum ISO and try F/8. The shutter speed has to be long enough to catch the spark so set the shutter to bulb. Then open the shutter - fire the spark – close the shutter. Look at the image, still a blue blur = overexposed close the aperture maybe F/11 and try again. Didn't see anything = underexposed so open the aperture maybe F/ 5.6 and try again. Repeat until fed up or happy :-)

Seal all doors and windows, turn on the dehumidifyer till you achieve near zero humidity. Rub your feet vigorously on a small section of carpet;-)