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That's something I'd never even considered...
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Beginner Northern Lights
- Thread starter bobbin
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That's something I'd never even considered...
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- Lee
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Although I shoot quite a bit of night skies, I've only tried the Northern Lights once, from down here in Somerset.
24mm full frame, ISO 500, f/2.2 & 8 seconds - iirc I had to boost exposure a bit so an extra stop of ISO would have been handy - I shot at f/2.2 for the foreground subject. I would imagine "up there" it would be much brighter though
I actually shot a timelapse (my first ever!)& that would be my advice anyway for something like the Northern Lights.
*** [Explored] by Lee, on Flickr
Of course, for more of a challenge you could always shoot it on film rather than digital
*** by Lee, on Flickr
24mm full frame, ISO 500, f/2.2 & 8 seconds - iirc I had to boost exposure a bit so an extra stop of ISO would have been handy - I shot at f/2.2 for the foreground subject. I would imagine "up there" it would be much brighter though
I actually shot a timelapse (my first ever!)& that would be my advice anyway for something like the Northern Lights.
*** [Explored] by Lee, on Flickr
Of course, for more of a challenge you could always shoot it on film rather than digital
*** by Lee, on Flickr
At the risk of being later to the party.
I used a Nikon D3300 @ 35mm f5.6 25 second exposure, ISO400 and stacked 76ish photos to get this;
Northern Lights Star Trail by Dawns Prey, on Flickr
Not saying this is the way to go, just this is what I got with these settings. If I remember correctly I was taking test shots before setting off the 76 photos for the above. Last night I did some night sky photos and missed focus so had to delete a bunch!
I used a Nikon D3300 @ 35mm f5.6 25 second exposure, ISO400 and stacked 76ish photos to get this;
Northern Lights Star Trail by Dawns Prey, on FlickrNot saying this is the way to go, just this is what I got with these settings. If I remember correctly I was taking test shots before setting off the 76 photos for the above. Last night I did some night sky photos and missed focus so had to delete a bunch!
Hi to everybody
We have now settled back in after returning from the Northern lights trip, Christmas and new year.
I thought I would post my experience as regards photography, lens and using the camera on the trip.
First I would like to thank everyone for there advice and thoughts, which I did take on board and tried to execute whilst on the trip.
We were part of a astronomy group 26 in total specifically looking for the Northern lights and leading us was Tom Kerss from Greenwich observatory, who was very good at predicting when the Northern lights would show themselves.
We were fortunate over the 12 days to see the Northern Lights on seven of the nights and as the trip went further north the more intense they became.
So now to photographing the Northern lights, I should add at this point that within our group we had a professional photographer from USA. On the second night the northern lights decided to show themselves and I had ready my camera in the cabin(we were two doors from the rear deck on 5 perfect) spare batteries in inside pocket as suggested, camera mounted on tripod settings sorted with spare lens in pocket (David Bailey nothing me on I thought) .Went out and up to top deck dressed like Michelin man only to be hit by a wind chill of -24 degrees and that was a wake up call. So opened tripod and focused on the northern lights only to find that I had trouble trying to focus and operate the camera not only because of my gloves but as Kell had suggested the movement of the boat from roll to up and down movement. I did persevere over two nights, trying to get some photo's I did manage to get some but sadly no where near good enough. So packed my gear away and just enjoyed the marvelous spectacle of the Northern lights.
The thing that struck me was how many of the group had brought cameras along in total 3 all the rest where using phones and in my humble opinion were getting some spectacular photo's including the wife I'm going to upload some of them taken with her phone. I did mention above about the professional photographer and the camera he was using was again a phone.
Below is a link to the trip we were on
https://www.space.com/see-northern-...astal-express-astronomy-voyage-what-to-expect.
Once again thanks to all who gave lots of help and advice it was very much appreciated I hope you all had a great Christmas and new year.
Bobbin
We have now settled back in after returning from the Northern lights trip, Christmas and new year.
I thought I would post my experience as regards photography, lens and using the camera on the trip.
First I would like to thank everyone for there advice and thoughts, which I did take on board and tried to execute whilst on the trip.
We were part of a astronomy group 26 in total specifically looking for the Northern lights and leading us was Tom Kerss from Greenwich observatory, who was very good at predicting when the Northern lights would show themselves.
We were fortunate over the 12 days to see the Northern Lights on seven of the nights and as the trip went further north the more intense they became.
So now to photographing the Northern lights, I should add at this point that within our group we had a professional photographer from USA. On the second night the northern lights decided to show themselves and I had ready my camera in the cabin(we were two doors from the rear deck on 5 perfect) spare batteries in inside pocket as suggested, camera mounted on tripod settings sorted with spare lens in pocket (David Bailey nothing me on I thought) .Went out and up to top deck dressed like Michelin man only to be hit by a wind chill of -24 degrees and that was a wake up call. So opened tripod and focused on the northern lights only to find that I had trouble trying to focus and operate the camera not only because of my gloves but as Kell had suggested the movement of the boat from roll to up and down movement. I did persevere over two nights, trying to get some photo's I did manage to get some but sadly no where near good enough. So packed my gear away and just enjoyed the marvelous spectacle of the Northern lights.
The thing that struck me was how many of the group had brought cameras along in total 3 all the rest where using phones and in my humble opinion were getting some spectacular photo's including the wife I'm going to upload some of them taken with her phone. I did mention above about the professional photographer and the camera he was using was again a phone.
Below is a link to the trip we were on
https://www.space.com/see-northern-...astal-express-astronomy-voyage-what-to-expect.
Once again thanks to all who gave lots of help and advice it was very much appreciated I hope you all had a great Christmas and new year.
Bobbin