Beginner Northern Lights

B

bobbin

Messages
34
Edit My Images
Yes
Hi to all

We are going up to Norway hopefully to see the Northern Lights, being new to photography would very much appreciate some advice regarding photographing the northern lights and perhaps which would be the best lens to use from my kit any pointers gratefully received with regards to settings and lens, do I need to purchase a different lens to those that I have already? . Below is a list of the kit that I have:

Canon EOS 1300D
Canon 18-55
Canon 10-18
Tamron 70-300
Flash gun
Tripod

Many thanks
Bobbin
 
As with any sort of astrophotography, you want a wide angle lens with the widest possible aperture to let in as much light as possible. What are the aperture values of your lenses? I'd say the 10-18mm is your best bet for capturing as much sky as possible but I'd suggest maybe hiring something with a wider aperture. Or, buy a second hand lens, take it on the trip and then sell it when you get home.
 
Richard said it. I've never shot the northen lights but I have done the milky way, and a fast-ish wide angle really helps. In your case the 10-18mm would be my starting place.
 
I have few chances every year to go and photograph the northern lights here in Finland - guess my personal tips/advice would be something like this :

- Lens : something wide. I have a 12mm and 16mm f2.8 lens that I use when capturing northern lights.
Pretty much wide and f2.8 would be nice. I do mostly tend to keep it at f2.8 or maybe sometimes stop down to 3.2 - 4.0 if it's bright enough.
There are some decent manual focus wide angle lenses - sorry, shooting Sony myself so not on top of what's the best ones for Canon.
( I like my Laowa Zero-D lenses for Northern Lights )

- Focus : probably you knew this already but Manual and Infinity.
I was told as an advice that when photographing northern lights for the first time - focus to infinity as then you keep the lights in the main focus in the image.
If you have plenty of chances to capture them - then you might want to focus on some foreground features.

- Shutter speed : Depends a lot on the strength of the northern lights and whether you have full moon or dark skies.
Mostly my images are between 2seconds and up to 12-14 seconds.. one year it was full moon most nights when I was up north so anything over 5 seconds just made it look like day time.
Shorter the shutter speed - the more individual details of the northern lights you capture, the longer the exposure - the more lights and maybe more impressive northern lights in your image.
Once again - depends whether it is just a quiet show or a full sky ablaze kind of show on the sky.

- ISO : I try to keep this low, just to keep the noise down.. but it's pretty easy to clean it up on the post afterwards ;-)

- Tripod - sturdy and easy to operate.. Norway can get very windy on exposed landscape, so a cheap plastic tripod might end up shaking and ruining your photos.
But of course not so heavy that you feel uncomfortable dragging it through the snow (depending when you head to Norway - and where to!)

- Timer - once again only my own experience - the northern lights will keep moving and you never quite know what you'll capture.... so I use a 2 second delay on the shutter or a remote. Just to let the camera settle after I've pressed the shutter.

Also - keep checking that your lens doesn't mist up - this happens so easily when you come from warmth inside to the freezing temperatures outside.

Download few good apps that 'predict' northern lights and give forecasts for those - few of them even give alerts to you when you are likely to see them. (just be prepared to rush out at 3am when you get a push notification).
 
RichardC27 said:
As with any sort of astrophotography, you want a wide angle lens with the widest possible aperture to let in as much light as possible. What are the aperture values of your lenses? I'd say the 10-18mm is your best bet for capturing as much sky as possible but I'd suggest maybe hiring something with a wider aperture. Or, buy a second hand lens, take it on the trip and then sell it when you get home.
Click to expand...
Not for any type of astrophotography as shooting nebulae & star clusters etc. require long focal lengths, but totally correct for northern lights, shooting stars & milky way etc.

If looking at renting a wide angle prime f2.8 (or faster) would be my preference.
The tripod will definitely be wanted & the flash definitely not except perhaps for foregrounds at the end of a long exposure.
 
Hi to all

Many thanks for the replies, lots to take on board, really worried that I might miss them or catch them but end up with a poor shot so all advice gratefully received, we are sailing up the coast of Norway starting at Bergan and sailing up to Kirkenes so hopefully having plenty of chances to capture them.
Will look into hiring against the possible buying of one I can buy a canon 50mmF/1.8 STM lens for a reasonable price would it be worth investing ? The 10- 18 lens is F/4.5.-5.6. Tripod that I am using does appear to of descent quality have used it in pretty blustery conditions down on the shore near to where we live and it survived.
Once again thanks to all that took the time to reply with advice and suggestions any more will be taken on board.

Bobbin
 
I shot the Northern lights in Iceland a number of years ago. I used various slow shutter speeds on a small tripod with a 28-70 on the wide angle side on manual focus near infinity. It's quite mesmerising when you see them and at the end of the day it's just as important watching it as capturing them.
 
bobbin said:
Hi to all

Many thanks for the replies, lots to take on board, really worried that I might miss them or catch them but end up with a poor shot so all advice gratefully received, we are sailing up the coast of Norway starting at Bergan and sailing up to Kirkenes so hopefully having plenty of chances to capture them.
Will look into hiring against the possible buying of one I can buy a canon 50mmF/1.8 STM lens for a reasonable price would it be worth investing ? The 10- 18 lens is F/4.5.-5.6. Tripod that I am using does appear to of descent quality have used it in pretty blustery conditions down on the shore near to where we live and it survived.
Once again thanks to all that took the time to reply with advice and suggestions any more will be taken on board.

Bobbin
Click to expand...
At least then most of the way you should be in the Northern lights territory on your travels.. once again depends so much on the weather.
Up in Kirknes area you should normally have northern lights (even on slow solar activity) on pretty much every second night.
But then you come to the weather.. is it gonna be cloudy, full moon??? (and trust me - most of Norway is cloudy most of the year.. my wife is from there so I know)

For my own liking - an f4.5 lens might be bit of a squeeze on the aperture.. depending how high you wanna go on the ISO.
A 50mm lens won't really (once again in my opinion) be any use for northern lights... otherwise a nice lens.. but for northern lights.. pretty much no use for that.

As Peter above mentioned - he's shot on the 28mm in Iceland, so it's doable on that focal length .. personal taste for me is to go on the scale between 10mm-20mm and f2.8.
And a manual focus lens is good enough ... this year I am taking my 16-35mm f2.8 and will see how that works... sometimes the 12mm is a bit too wide.

With clear skies - you definitely should have a chance to see some!! And yes - do enjoy just walking underneath them and looking and marvelling at them..
Photos are nice memories - but actually just laying in the snow and looking up while the light dance above you... that is just priceless.
 
Hi Graham
Many thanks for that info, very much appreciated, so looking forward to this trip and have been taking camera out as I get the time to have a play and get more familiar with what it can do but more importantly what I can do with the camera only time will tell.

Thanks again for the advice much appreciated.

Bobbin
 
IMO & E, no shot of the Northern Lights can ever do them justice so just get a few record shots and watch one of Nature's greatest shows through unimpeded Mk 1 eyeballs!

For the record shots though, as wide and as fast as you can go, on the sturdiest tripod you have and play with length of exposures. Keep checking the front element for condensation/frost/spray. Enjoy the show!
 
Hi Nod
As other replies have said not to miss the show because of the supposed need to take the best shot and trying to get the best shot miss the show, Point well made and have taken on board.

Thanks once again

Bobbin
 
Going to see the lights is my dream so good luck with this bobbin.

Don't forget to come back and post some pictures and your thoughts.

Enjoy :D
 
bobbin said:
Hi Nod
As other replies have said not to miss the show because of the supposed need to take the best shot and trying to get the best shot miss the show, Point well made and have taken on board.

Thanks once again

Bobbin
Click to expand...

One option is to set up to capture as much of the show as possible and just keep shooting at assorted shutter speeds to get a wide variety of shots. That does rely a little on luck but if it's a good show, you should get a fair few decent shots! Just keep an eye on battery level (they run down faster in the cold) and the front element. Keep spare batteries in inside pockets and put the run down ones in a different inside pocket - once the run down ones warm up, they will get a bit more charge so can be used again if all the fresh ones run out.

Oh, and use a sturdy tripod and a remote shutter release if possible!
 
Nod said:
One option is to set up to capture as much of the show as possible and just keep shooting at assorted shutter speeds to get a wide variety of shots. That does rely a little on luck but if it's a good show, you should get a fair few decent shots! Just keep an eye on battery level (they run down faster in the cold) and the front element. Keep spare batteries in inside pockets and put the run down ones in a different inside pocket - once the run down ones warm up, they will get a bit more charge so can be used again if all the fresh ones run out.

Oh, and use a sturdy tripod and a remote shutter release if possible!
Click to expand...
Hi Nod
Yes have three batteries to use so hopefully this should be enough good point re inside pockets and I now have have a remote shutter release just been using it over the weekend and does seem easier enough to use.
Thanks again for all the tips and advice.
Bobbin
 
I can come at it from a slightly different perspective and give you some advice on what NOT to do after seeing them in Iceland last year.

I figured I'd google the best settings etc when we were there, then panicked when we saw them on the last night, couldn't get access to the internet and went with gut feel. I thought I was doing the right thing by going for a smaller aperture and longer exposure time. I don't really know why I thought this, but I did. So I ended up using something like f/14 and 25-30 second exposures for most shots.

Turns out I couldn't really have been more wrong. Though I will say, that they all looked great on the LCD on the back of the camera. So I didn't really experiment with wider apertures or shorter shutter speeds.

Things I read since getting back said to go for the shortest shutter speed you can get away with and let the ISO go as high as it needs to be. Certainly my 30 second exposures ended up with very little definition to the lights themselves and it meant any trees or bushes also ended up blurry with such a long exposure time. I'd take the advice above, shoot as wide as possible and go for 5-10 second exposures, and just let the ISO fall where it does.

Try and get some context. Buildings, trees etc, just something to show some scale. Building are better as they don't move (see above).

Use the widest lens you can get your hands on. I had a 24-70mm. Shot most of it at 24mm, but could have done with being wider.

Remember to look all around you. We were incredibly lucky that on the last night of our trip, they started and continued exactly in line with the house we were staying in.

But they started in one direction and moved above us, then all around. If you only direct your gaze and focus in one direction you might well miss something spectacular above your head or behind you.

Here's a link to some of my shots. I'm doing this to illustrate what happens when you get it wrong, not that I think they're any good. These were the best of the ones I could rescue.

Scroll down to see them. And see where I went wrong...

If I was going again, I'd use a wider lens, and go much wider on the aperture. So it could be shorter on the exposure time.

I think the most important thing however is to take heed of the advice above. Don't get so caught up with trying to capture them that you fail to experience them. It's an amazing spectacle with a genuinely 'magical' feeling.

ETA: From your current kit, your best bet would be the 10-18 lens. On a crop body such as the 1300D, it's broadly equivalent to 16-28mm on a FF.

Tripod is a must.

1300D is likely to be fairly noisy, so I'd open the aperture and zoom as wide as they go, set a shutter speed of 10s and set the ISO to auto. See what that gets you.

This is the Adobe guide:

www.adobe.com

Best camera settings to capture the Northern Lights - Adobe

Discover the best camera settings for Northern Lights photography. Learn how to set up your camera and edit your shots in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom.
www.adobe.com
 
Last edited:
Hi Kell

Thanks very much for the advice, really good points which I will put to good use, had a look through your photo's (thanks very much for sharing) and if I mange to take some as half as good I would be happy.
Having just come back from America and a day spent at the space centre I can't help but see the similarity of shape between the photo of the church and the space shuttle, got to ask do you know if it was designed to look like the shuttle, or did the Americans copy the design for the shuttle:)

Many thanks for the advice.
Peter
 
Wide and fast.

I took my fuji X-T3 (at the time) up to norway on a northern light trip. I got a Samyang 12mm F2 lens which was perfect. Got some great shots. Not sure if they do this lens or similar for Canon.

Some good tips from Kell above. Key points for me are:

1. Practice camera settings before you go. You don't want to be scrambling around with your camera settings whilst missing the lights.
2. Remember the photo should still be a nice photo without the northern lights. Look for a foreground and some points of interest to help like mountains etc. Helps with scale as well.
3. Remember to stop and just watch. Its easy to get caught up in the photo taking and forget to just stop and enjoy the moment.

We went up to Tromso in Norway. We were really lucky that the lights activity and clear skies all combined. Where are you off to?
 
Hi benhben
We are setting off from Bergen and then up the coast to Kirkenes, then return back down to Bergen over 12 days will have a look at that lens.

Many thanks
Bobbin
woof woof said:
Going to see the lights is my dream so good luck with this bobbin.

Don't forget to come back and post some pictures and your thoughts.

Enjoy :D
Click to expand...
Hi woof woof
Yes will do hope pictures will be good enough to post.
 
benhben said:
Wide and fast.

I took my fuji X-T3 (at the time) up to norway on a northern light trip. I got a Samyang 12mm F2 lens which was perfect. Got some great shots. Not sure if they do this lens or similar for Canon.

Some good tips from Kell above. Key points for me are:

1. Practice camera settings before you go. You don't want to be scrambling around with your camera settings whilst missing the lights.
2. Remember the photo should still be a nice photo without the northern lights. Look for a foreground and some points of interest to help like mountains etc. Helps with scale as well.
3. Remember to stop and just watch. Its easy to get caught up in the photo taking and forget to just stop and enjoy the moment.

We went up to Tromso in Norway. We were really lucky that the lights activity and clear skies all combined. Where are you off to?
Click to expand...
Hi benhben
Been having a look around for that 12mm f2 lens suitable for the Canon 1300d am struggling but will have a look around tomorrow.

Thanks once again.
Bobbin
 
bobbin said:
Hi benhben
Been having a look around for that 12mm f2 lens suitable for the Canon 1300d am struggling but will have a look around tomorrow.

Thanks once again.
Bobbin
Click to expand...
A quick look suggests the f2 is only available in EOS-M mount. But the 2.8 @Kell linked is available in EF for crop sensors.
 
Hi Phil V

Yes after looking around that is what I found out, had a look to see if anybody did an adapter from M to EF and nobody does an adapter but am told that my 10mm-18mm lens and 18mm-55mm (that's me saying this as a total novice on the subject) should cover me, but will have to see if that's correct when we are up there.

I suspect I'm for a very steep learning curve but hopefully come away with a better understanding of photography which is all I can ask.

Thanks for all the advice

Bobbin
 
Hi to all

Have just been told that on this trip we have the opportunity to attend photography talks, on settings, lens type and all things around photographing the northern lights so should be interesting.

Bobbin
 
Hi Kell

Just read your post re the 10mm lens and I am confused need some advice as regards which way to go do I buy the 10mm lens or use the 12mm -18mm that I have got really unsure what to do it's not about cost but although it is a consideration more like what's best not just for this trip but for other photography that I might do Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated as to what's best for my situation being new to all things photography.

Many many thanks for all those who have replied with advice/help it is very much appreciated.

Bobbin
 
This is just the way forums work.

You ask "Which of my current equipment would be best...?"

And almost immediately the responses are "Well, I wouldn't use any of those, I'd buy X"

The lens I pointed to was in response to you asking about the F2 Fuji lens.

I'd say that an extreme wide, prime, manual focus lens is a fairly specialist bit of kit. It will have limited use outside of landscape and low-light astro-photography.

Your current lens choice is very good in that it covers a huge spread. It's almost the perfect trifecta equivalent in crop body equivalents to FF lenses. In FF they'd be, 16-35, 24-70 and 70-200 L lenses.

As you say you're a beginner, I'd start by using those for a while and then working out which gets used most and why. Then maybe start specialising in buying other lenses when you realise what you like shooting. Again, I'm speaking from experience here in that I just kept buying stuff with no strategy and ended up buying the wrong lenses.

As an example, a 50mm 1.8 is a great leans. Cheap, but creates wonderful shots - on a FF camera. But when I first bought one, I had a crop body, and I found that it wasn't wide enough where I wanted to use it. I ended up buying a 30mm Sigma Art 1.4 lens, which was much better when fitted to a crop body. If, before I'd bought the 50mm, I'd tried setting my kit lens to 50mm and seeing what the field of view was, I'd have found out that shooting indoors, most often needed something wider.

In this specific case, what I would recommend to be worthwhile is to go to flickr, type in "Northern lights" and scroll through the shots - making note of the settings (where they're displayed) of the ones you like. If if looks like you could achieve this with your current lenses, then I'd say there's no real need to buy another.

I've just had a quick look and many are taken at or around 16mm (broadly the FF equivalent of 10mm on a crop sensor). and at f/3.5 and under. So I'd say there's no doubt that the f/2.8, 10mm Samyang would be better for shooting the Northern Lights, because it has that wider aperture.

But unfortunately, I can't tell you whether or not it would be 'worth' spending the money on.
 
Last edited:
Hi Kell

Many thanks for that advice and helping me see what I really need to be doing. as you suggested I'm going with what I've got learn how to use that and in doing so hopefully that will lead me on to as you rightfully say what is good for what I want to get out of photography.

Will take on board that idea of yours regarding flickr that will give me a good base and not have me floundering as regards what will be the best settings.

Many thanks for the time taken and advice given much appreciated.

Bobbin
 
Lots of advice above, but do remember that all that has been said only applies to when you are taking the shots ON LAND.

If you are on board and the lights appear and even if the Captain stops the ship to let people see the lights (and he will, because that way Hurtigruten meet their "see the lights or get a refund of some sort" promise), the ship will not have forward way, but will sit wallowing in the waves. Any thoughts of getting a decent image with exposures in the seconds range should be abandoned.
 
Hi John L
Just when I thought it was safe to pack my kit up and go and explore Norway worry free and then you through out a curve ball that I never even considered.:oops: :$

Yes we are going with Hurtigruten and yes we do get a refund/ free trip if lights are a no show.

But thanks for making me aware of the fact that it will probably be from the ship that we will see the lights and we can then plan accordingly.

Many thanks to everyone for all of the tips and advice.

Bobbin
 
I haven't read all the responses to this thread.
I attended a talk by a full time pro who shoots lots of aurora images.
Take away was wide angle - 16mm or wider full frame and F2.8 or wider is by far the best.
The moon can be your friend - it lights up the foreground for you (image stacking can be problematic with aurora images).
Someone asked about shooting from a boat - not ideal and a tripod will be of little use as it will rise and fall with the boat.

Hope that helps.

p.s. It's cold up there, so get your camera set up before you go outside.
 
Bobbin - wherever you see the lights from, take time to just embrace and enjoy them - they are a wonderful spectacle - any images are a bonus!

P.S. I was always dead set against cruises, but SWMBO pursuaded me to go on the Hurtigruten and I enjoyed it immensely. The ships are in effect the coastal bus service and there is always something happening - plenty of opportunities for taking pictures either in port or as the scenery passes you by.
 
Hi Peter and John_L

Yes, I think that I've been so focused on photography that I've missed the point of actually seeing and experiencing the northern lights, but with all the tips and advice given the one thing that does stand out is enjoy the spectacle if your lucky enough to see them and if you can catch a photo of them then that is a bonus.

Hi John_L yes that was my thoughts but having been dragged on to the first one you could actually see my finger nail marks as I was dragged onto the boat.

But now 4 cruises under my belt and my finger nails have now grown back can honestly say what a great experience a bit like a tester menu where by you can experience 6 -8 countries over the cruise period, this is something you could not experience on a conventional holiday, just my point of view I'm sure that there are lots of people who would hate the thought of being on a ship for a fortnight.

Hi Peter 123
Yes I had thought about the cold and setting up the camera before going outside, but I wonder if I will have to wait a while for the lens to clear with the different temperatures I think that it is going to be it I hope it will clear in time to take a photo. But as has been said enjoy the spectacle and take the photo's as you can.

Once again many thanks for the time and effort that everybody has put into this thread I was unsure to ask for help and advice but I have been totally blown away by all of the help, advice and time that members of the forum have spent in trying to help and also allay my fears in asking for help, I only hope that in time I will also repay all this help by being a contributor to the forum, first by hopefully with some photo's of the up and coming trip.

Many thanks
Bobbin
 
Hi Kell
Sorry for late reply have been away, unable to see advert as not posted enough yet do you know what cost and is it still for sale?

Many thanks
bobbin
 
Hi Kell

Many thanks for that will have a look shortly when I've reached the threshold of posts.

bobbin
 
Hi Kell
At that price it might be worth buying just to see how I get on with it.

bobbin
 
Hi Kell
Hopefully should be able to go across and see it now.

Many thanks

bobbin
 
Hi Kell

Just read rules again must have miss read at beginning it is 26 posts before new members can see classifieds.

bobbin
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top