Iceland trip and Northern Nights - any tips please

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Hi everyone, need some advice if possible please.

My (lovely) wife has organised for my birthday a long weekend trip to Iceland in March, and booked a visit to view and photograph the Northern Lights. :D

We will be taking in some of the falls and geysers etc.. but having never photgraphed anything like the Northern Lights before, and I doubt I'll have time to practive when I'm there... has anyone been there and done this and got any tips/advice please.

I don't really want to take everything 'just in case'. I want to take minimal/essential only kit as I want this as hand luggage - I don't want anything going cargo :nono:

A buddy of mine has done this from a plane flight, but this will be from the ground in the open.

Cheers
TONY
 
Cant offer any advice but going myself on the 14th of feb and really looking forward to it

Warm cloths and chemical hand warmers are top of my list
 
You will need a tripod for northern lights as exposures will be several seconds long.
Use a fast wide lens if poss e.g 17mm at f2.8
high iso, as high as your camera can go without too much noise e.g 800 or 1000
Use bulb mode, cable release and on the above settings shoot for maybe 15 secs or so. Then if too dark you can increase exposure to say 30 or 60 secs as necessary.
Check your histogram.
If there's a fullish moon you can get away with 10-15 secs exposures.
You dont want longer than 60 sec generally as it will blur the lights. Thats why you need high iso and wide aperture.
Oh and focus on infinity (test your lens first, dont assume the infinity mark on the scale is in focus as sometimes its not.
Try to get some foreground e.g building or rocks to make the shot more appealing (you could consider a torch to light this up for a few seconds during the exposure).

This shot in Iceland was only 7 secs because of the full moon and the strong bright aurora

5530413590_a3e76c5784_b.jpg
 
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Where was that Marie? I'm asking as there was a similar building in the press photos the other day with the northern lights
 
Boney Boy said:
I want to take minimal/essential only kit as I want this as hand luggage - I don't want anything going cargo :nono:
Click to expand...
You NEED a tripod if you want to photograph the aurora. Can you take that as hand luggage?
 
The tips I'll be bearing in mind for my Iceland trip will be:

Bring spare batteries and try to keep them warm as cold batteries run out faster.

Use a laser torch to help focus properly.
 
i was in iceland last weekend and got some shots that might not be competition winners but im more than happy with them!!

i would give advice but i am tired and going to bed so will do that tomorrow :)
 
Thanks for this, much appreciated. Lens-wise I have a 17-55 2.8 is Tamron, a 17-70 2.8 non is Sigma, and a 50 1.8 non is Canon as my lowest f lenses. The tripod as cargo worries me slightly. Might see if her ladyship can take that as her hand luggage.
 
canon_togger said:
You will need a tripod for northern lights as exposures will be several seconds long.
Use a fast wide lens if poss e.g 17mm at f2.8
high iso, as high as your camera can go without too much noise e.g 800 or 1000
Use bulb mode, cable release and on the above settings shoot for maybe 15 secs or so. Then if too dark you can increase exposure to say 30 or 60 secs as necessary.
Check your histogram.
If there's a fullish moon you can get away with 10-15 secs exposures.
You dont want longer than 60 sec generally as it will blur the lights. Thats why you need high iso and wide aperture.
Oh and focus on infinity (test your lens first, dont assume the infinity mark on the scale is in focus as sometimes its not.
Try to get some foreground e.g building or rocks to make the shot more appealing (you could consider a torch to light this up for a few seconds during the exposure).

This shot in Iceland was only 7 secs because of the full moon and the strong bright aurora

5530413590_a3e76c5784_b.jpg
Click to expand...

Nice one...I'm off to Finland...way up North in 2 weeks and this will really help me.

Cracking photograph by the way (y)
 
A friend from work has just stayed in the Ice hotel and they had a trip out to see the lights, they were blown away with them and she said the locals were saying they were very good at present - lasted for about 2 hours !

Can't give any advice re settings etc as never been, but really want to go ...

Have a wonderful time Tony
 
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Hi there,

I'm living in mid-Norway with some possibilities of aurora...

Since the aurora is moving pretty fast I would advice you to have a shutter speed less than 5-6". If it's eg 30s, then you normally would just get a green blurry sky. Could also be impressive, but I would start with less seconds.. In addition; tripod and remote trigger. A fast lens, f2.8 if possible, and high iso. How high would depend on the aurora, but don't be shocked if you would need to get as high as 1600-2000. The noise is normally not a problem...

And another tip would be to remove any filter on the lens, including safety glass. It's easy to get interferance when taking aurora-pictures. The interferance is visible as small rings in the picture.

You can also check out this web-site for forecast on aurora: http://www.gi.alaska.edu/AuroraForecast/3

As high up north as Island, I would expect level 1-2 is visible aurora. If you get a night with level 4, or even better level 5 (the level a couple of weeks ago), then you would probably get some awesome pictures...

Have a nice trip and best of luck,
Bmj
 
Marie- do you know if you have to go far out of Rekjavik itself to get away from enough light polution to get decent star-shots?
(Incredible shot btw!)
 
Hi all. Having a spot of bother trying to find a reasonable way to get to the south island for some photography there. Coach trips a plenty but that means too many tourists. Anyone use a local photographer or guide before they could recommend?
 
I went in winter at -40deg Celcius. One problem I faced was my shutter being frozen shut (yeap), so try and keep your camera warm when not in use and not go out for too long (was out for about 3hrs in the cold)
 
Boney Boy said:
Hi all. Having a spot of bother trying to find a reasonable way to get to the south island for some photography there. Coach trips a plenty but that means too many tourists. Anyone use a local photographer or guide before they could recommend?
Click to expand...

Try icelandaurora.com
 
Well we're here at last. Thanks for the tips. Our trip tonight has been confirmed as 'on" so fingers crossed.

I'll post successful shots later.

For anyone else coming here, a few more pointers:

On the transfer bus from the airport to wherever you're staying, sit on the right hand side - nothing to see on the left.

It is cold. I know the clue is in the name of the place and everyone has already said this, I'm just confirming it. Go layers not bulk because everywhere you go that is inside is warm, really warm, too warm. Take it from me you need headgear that covers your ears.

Expect to pay London prices. We had a nice 3 course dinner for 2 last night with 2 drinks and it cost approximately £100.

Wish me luck tonight!
 
canon_togger said:
Try icelandaurora.com
Click to expand...

We found a trip with Volcano Tours - they only take 4 to 6 people Max and its an all day (10 to 12 hours) that takes in all the places we what to see without a coachload.
 
StewartR said:
You NEED a tripod if you want to photograph the aurora. Can you take that as hand luggage?
Click to expand...

We flew with lcelandair and we took the tripod as hand luggage. According to their website you can carry on 1 piece of hand luggage (my Lowepro flipside 400 is within their stated dimensions) plus a cane, walking stick or umbrella type item, which the tripod in its carrycase was.
 
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