Beginner Northern lights - best setup

[woody12]

Hi, im asking for a friend who is visiting the Northern lights and is not a photographer and just wants some nice pics. They was asking for my advice on what camera to use, they have a Canon 4000d (i always use Nikon). I just said i think imo that the lens is the most important thing with such low light photograpy. I haven't much experience with the northern lights. Would love some advice to pass on as this a once in a lifetime trip. Thankyou

 

[Tringa]

This shot of the lights from north west Scotland was taken with my 18 - 55mm kit lens at 18mm, 20seconds at f3.5 and an ISO of 6400.

nl by Dave Marley, on Flickr


I'm guessing as you say your friend is visiting the Northern Lights he/she is going further north than Scotland so should(weather and the Sun permitting) get a better show.

HTH

Dave

 

[MrRichAllen1976]

This shot of the lights from north west Scotland was taken with my 18 - 55mm kit lens at 18mm, 20seconds at f3.5 and an ISO of 6400.

nl by Dave Marley, on Flickr


I'm guessing as you say your friend is visiting the Northern Lights he/she is going further north than Scotland so should(weather and the Sun permitting) get a better show.

HTH

Dave

Great photo that Dave! I like the detail you got on the stars

 

[Jim_Tod]

Tripod and knowing how to use the M setting and adjust aperture/ exposure on camera. Other than that its experiment at the time. Would agree to some extent on lens but if aurota strong then slowish kit lens can be fine. Manual focus on the lens or autofocus some bright light a long way away and then switch to manual.

In Iceland a really strong aurora might wash out at 20sec/ iso 6400 so regularly going up and down settings to see what works as the aurora changes. Too much and you get a green blob, just right and you capture the light dancing.

finally, take the aurora image(s) and get it a few in the bag that you can show off. Then work the best compositions you can or go somewhere else for the aurora and landscape.

 

[Tringa]

Great photo that Dave! I like the detail you got on the stars

Thanks Richard. Some of the stars are starting to show trailing.

With the lens at 18mm and a crop factor of 1.5 the maximum exposure before the stars start to show trails, rather than points, is around about 22 seconds (depends on how you calculate it) so I usually keep it down to 20 seconds, but it also depends on what part of the sky you are photographing.

I'm sure auroral displays are much brighter in more northerly latitudes(and sometimes in the UK) but all the aurora I have seen in the UK (at around 57 north) have been much less visible, both in intensity and colour, to the naked eye than in photos.

When I took the above shot I could see light areas in the sky which should not have been there(the photo was taken about four hours after sunset) but no colour at all.

Dave