Always put safety first. Storms can be dangerous. Lightning can jump 10 miles and strike you. Follow the national weather service's guidelines for safety.

          The storm and rain were moving from left to right. The sun was setting. Warm orange hues colored the sky. I shot right into the setting sun and captured this image:

In post processing I lighted up a few spots in the clouds (choose spots that are a bit lighter already, that way you are only bringing out what is there already). Experiment with shutter speeds; sometimes longer shutter speeds may help accentuate the rain falling. It may be helpful to position yourself on higher ground (please follow safety guidelines of the national weather service) to get this kind of view.

          To get a star burst use a small F.Stop such as 16 or 22 and wait for the sun to move partly behind a hard edge (mountain, tree, building, etc.). Exposure can be tricky and light meters are not always good at figuring it out on your behalf. In images such as this the best means of getting the best exposure is to rely on your histogram. Make sure that you are not clipping (blinkies may appear on your screen) your whites (right side of histogram graph may not touch the right edge of the histogram box). Forget about the blacks at this point. If you clip just a small section of the sun itself, don't worry about it. Just shoot to get the whites right.

          Now in post processing you can lift your blacks. You can also see if moving the highlights slider or the whites slider may get rid of the clipping of the sun. If it does, great, if not, simply clone (opacity on 5 or 10%) a little of bright orange right next to the clipped section into the clipped area.

          There you have it. I hope these tips and techniques will help you successfully capture images such as this.