Advice on the northern lights please!

[Chilli Pepper]

Hi again! I went to Tromso and took some shots of the northern lights last November and hope this November to see/photograph them in Luosto, Finland. Below are my attempts at photographing them last year. Can anyone please give me any advice on how I can improve on them at all, in all fairness know they are pretty poor in comparison to many but any advice will be gratefully received! ....

flight of fantasy by ChilliPepper0713, on Flickr

Canon 100D
Exposure 15
Aperture f/3.5
Focal length 20mm
ISO 800

engaging dance by ChilliPepper0713, on Flickr

Canon 100D
Exposure 15
Aperture f/3.5
Focal length 18mm
ISO 800

 

[Comfy]

I like your images Chille Pepper, the colours are great and you've controlled the exposure well. I'd have cropped the top one to a more panoramic ratio and edited out the aircraft, I find it a bit distracting.

On the second image I would have crossed the road and used the tracks in the snow as a lead in line. It would give the image a feel of being in the middle of nowhere rather than on the side of a road.

I've only photographed aurora as a slight green haze in the distance whilst on a ship heading to Norway. As you might expect, the results weren't very good but the lads were happy as I got us all lit up in the foreground with a green haze in the sky.

Here's a link I found, I hope its useful http://www.alaskaphotographics.com/blog/how-to-photograph-the-northern-lights-with-a-digital-camera/

 

[Mark Ross]

In addition to what @Comfy said about composition etc, I would add that equipment is really important with astrophography - ideally you want at least f2.8 and a high ISO. I have the benefit of a Canon 6D which can comfortably go up to ISO 3200 and a 16-35mm f2.8 lens. Here a shot I took over Tromso last year at f2.8 / ISO 1600 / 25s :

I would suggest pushing the ISO up to 1600 if you can, although your 100D may get a bit too noisy at this point, you can apply noise reduction later in Lightroom. Have you post processed the images at all? You could really bring out the colours of the aurora with some basic Lightroom edits. Increase the contrast, clarity etc. Plus some local adjustments on the aurora itself to give it some extra punch. Have a look at the processing section in the link that Comfy posted above for some more advice. If you do a google search for "aurora post processing" you will find a wealth of info out there.

If you are interested in astrophotography but don't want to spend too much money on new kit, I would recommend one of the Samyang manual focus lenses - either the 14mm f2.8 or the 24mm f1.4 - these are give you a much bigger aperture and are meant to be some of the best lenses you can get for astrophotography.

 

[Chilli Pepper]

Thank you so much guys for the advice however while you posted I was away taking some photographs, although away for four nights and only showed the first night due to snow and cloud cover. Had another go on the Luosto trip but will use this advice if I go again next year! And I do hope to get a better lens for next time!!! Thanks again