Hi and Welcome to Nikonites. Hope you enjoy it here, as we all do, and looking forward to seeing some of your work. If you could fill out the rest of your profile.......camera, lenses, equipment, etc.,...that would be great. It helps us to help you if you should have any questions. Thanks, and have a great time here.
Lightning huh? Well your set up was wrong compared to what I shot. You're going to need a tripod and the remote. You want no camera shake, handholding a lightning shot I don't see happening. You can try the two-second-delay timer until you can get a remote off a tripod.
Marcel was right, you have to be on manual focus. Auto focus on a subject in the distance then switch you camera or lens to Manual. Then you're done with focusing.
The is no one setting I have found for lightning, each bolt is different depending on how intense it is and the distance from the camera.
A good "Starting point" would be f/8 at the height of the storm at 20sec. I adjust my f/stop more than I adjust my exposure time.
ISO set at 100, you want to stay away from the grain with the higher ISO's
Lens, you said your were shooting 180mm, why would you limit yourself to such a small field of vision? I use an 18-108mm lens somewhere between18 and 28 mm. This way to can cover more of the sky, you never know where it's going to come from so cover as much as you can. If you want a close up of a shot you took you can zoom crop it in a photo editor.
I don't know of anyone on the board that has a passion for lightning photography like I have. I'm not saying I'm an expert, and my way is the right way, but this has worked for me the last 5-6 years If someone has any more input or I have said something incorrect please correct me.
Before you embark on another lightning shot attempt please read another thread I have commented on
http://nikonites.com/d3000-d5000/1717-help-pleaseee-lightning-shots.html