Ok i'm having a bit of a experimental spurt before i start college in a couple of weeks. I've been playing with Macro and getting some good results (download combineEZ for free, its amazing for extreme macro processing)

Now i want to try some other stuff like long exposure. So what is the best way to photography lightening. I though about doing long exposures in the hope of seeing the lightening trail. My problem with this is that long exposures give you an orange sky. How do you get the lightening but maintain something like a black night sky and what exposure compensation if any is needed.

All advice and sample pictures welcome.

You can get filters that reduce skyglow.

Apart from finding a dark sky, the other thing to try is reducing the exposure time - also, if it's digital, you could probably tone down the skyglow in 'post production', so to say.

Also, again if you're using digital, try messing with your white balance. You might be able to make the glow less orange.