So i'm off to iceland in a few weeks time with my parents... i'm hoping to catch some northern lights action but have been wondering about how i'm going to do this properly.
Has anyone done this and can lend some tips? Ideally with low light you want to have a long exposure - especially as i want to get a nice foreground. However, from my understanding of the lights, theyre continuously moving. So that means if i'm going long exposure, i'll wont have a nice defined northern lights shot... it'll just be a mash of colours. So how do i level this out? I imagine i'll need to up ISO a touch, however do i get a light such as a GL-1 to light paint the foreground? If i do this will i kill any potential refelction of light / colour from the sky?
Or should I just go long exposure to get a nicely exposed foreground for a few frames, and then just start shooting for the sky and PS them later?
I was in Iceland in October and took a bunch of shots of the northern lights. I went out with a guided tour and I was the only photographer besides the tour operator. I picked up a few tips from him. Try to shoot at a higher ISO like 800-1600. I varied my exposures from 4-15 seconds. I found that 15 is too long 5-10 is just right. They lights don't move too fast. Most of the color you will get is green. I caught some pinks too, but very few. Reflection from the landscape shouldn't be a problem, passing cars on the other hand get to be annoying.
The camera picks up the light on long exposure better than you can see it, so even if it doesn't look too spectacular, take some shots - you may get something better than you think.
Use a wide angle lens and the fastest one you have.
Keep the ISO high to keep shutter speeds low - anything more than ten seconds causes star trails to appear.
Manual focus - set your lens to infinity and back off a tad.
Use a sturdy tripod.
DON't use a flash or torch to illuminate foreground interest if anyone else is around, because it will ruin night vision (yours and theirs) and you will not be popular.
Keep spare batteries and memory cards present. Keep batteries in a pocket so that they stay warm - they can discharge very swiftly in colder temperatures.
Shoot in Raw - that way you will have more latitude should you get it wrong.
White balance - I found Daylight gave the best results but you can always fix it later on.
Get an app on your smartphone to forecast Auroral activity BUT because the Aurora is a natural activity, you might find that the forecast are wildly inaccurate.
Get an app on your phone to forecast Solar events (e.g. coronal mass ejections, solar flare activity) as these are the sorts of things that cause bigger / brighter aurorae.
The Aurora is not an excessively bright event unless you are lucky. You might see nothing at all - be prepared for disappointment. You might be lucky to see Auroral sub-storms then again, you might not and the best you might see is a greyish, greenish smudge.
There are three colours that might show. Green (mostly) where highish energy particles strike Oxygen atoms low in the atmosphere, red (rarer than green) where lower energy particles strike Oxygen atoms higher in the atmosphere and violet (rare) where very high energy particles strike Nitrogen atoms.
As for movement of the Aurora... sometimes they appear stationary, at other times they might dance in front of your eyes.
No activity lasts forever (anything from a few seconds to a few minutes) so be prepared to take photographs at a moment's notice.
Keep your eyes open and be prepared to wait for a long time - sneaking indoors to get a cup of coffee will almost guarantee that you will miss any decent activity.
Look to the brightest part of the Aurora because that is where activity is most likely to start.
Wrap up warm otherwise it won't be your camera that gets a case of bad exposure.
Good luck.
Here's two that I took from the deck of a Norwegian ferry last year (so I had to try and take into account the tossing of the deck).
I agree w everything @creampuff says... A couple extra tips... If you have a choice, aim to go before moonrise or after moonset... A bright moon seems to interfere w things... Not sure if this was just chance, but the time I was out - that seemed to be the case...
If you have a red light flashlight it's helpful to bring along as you can use it to find things in your camera bag, retrieve dropped batteries and car keys, etc without messing up your night vision...
Also, when I shot the aurora they were only barely visible to the naked eye... But on camera, they came out spectacular... I found the whole experience quite awe inspiring...
@wrstumpel Thanks Bill @northy Indeed. I forgot to mention the moon - our trip was planned to coincide with the last vestiges of a waning moon, a new moon and then first glimpse of a waxing moon. We were incredibly lucky in that we saw Auroral activity eight nights out of ten
Reg light torch.. great tip... i've gone and bought one. And thats a very good point about using something like a GL1 to illuminate the foreground if there's lots of people around. I'm starting to think i may actually want to do some creative PS after the fact to get a nicely lit foreground and a decent light
EDIT : I'm taking my trusty three legged thing brian so thats plenty stable enough for my 5D3. Its a heck of a lot more stable than the £5 tripod i borrowed from my friend to shoot this :)
Also... what are your thoughts regarding lenses.... i figure i'll just rent a good one. I've already got a canon 24-70L F2.8 mk2 but ideally i'd like somethign wider and faster, however, it doesnt look like i can rent one. looks like i have to go with either wider OR faster...
So.. would you all rather have had a faster lens or a wider lens?
- Canon 16-35mm F2.8
- Canon 24mm F1.4
UPDATE : after speaking to someone at the lenses for hire place, i've decided that i'm going to go out with a few different lenses. The top two i'm renting .. i was only going to rent one and the company had a 50% off special so i figure heck why not get the fisheye :)
- Canon EF 15mm f/2.8 Fisheye
- Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8 L II USM
- Canon 24-70mm f2.8 L II (mine)
- Canon 50mm f1.4 (mine)
I highly doubt that i'll use the last option.. its kind of a backup in case everythign else goes pear shaped. the 24-70 is really for shooting the family
I went last year. Photos show up from late March to early April. There are more colours than the eye can see and so I shot wide open and exposed for slightly longer than others have suggested. Equipment wise I had a sturdy tripod, wide angle wide aperture lens and shutter release. Fingerless gloves and thick soled boots are also quite good things to have cos I got v cold. My shots not the greatest but I was v happy. Enjoy.
We managed to pick one of the most awful weeks to go to iceland, severe storm warnings, hurricane force winds, iced roads, the works. The most solar activity was on a night that was overcast. All up, i managed to get one night to take a few pics but the northern ligths weren't visible to the naked eye.... this is the only workable shot i got ...
@soseema thanks Seema.. to be honest, i'm a little scared about going again... never in my life have i been to a location where i felt it was actually out to get me :)
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Alexis Birkill @birkill has done them I think (he gave me great advice before I shot mine) and more recently Jake ( @digitalrogue )
http://365project.org/northy/just-because/2013-08-18
if you go to the photo in the link and scroll down, you will see where Alexis gave me some really helpful advice for shooting the northern lights...
Here's a pic from that trip:
Keep the ISO high to keep shutter speeds low - anything more than ten seconds causes star trails to appear.
Manual focus - set your lens to infinity and back off a tad.
Use a sturdy tripod.
DON't use a flash or torch to illuminate foreground interest if anyone else is around, because it will ruin night vision (yours and theirs) and you will not be popular.
Keep spare batteries and memory cards present. Keep batteries in a pocket so that they stay warm - they can discharge very swiftly in colder temperatures.
Shoot in Raw - that way you will have more latitude should you get it wrong.
White balance - I found Daylight gave the best results but you can always fix it later on.
Get an app on your smartphone to forecast Auroral activity BUT because the Aurora is a natural activity, you might find that the forecast are wildly inaccurate.
Get an app on your phone to forecast Solar events (e.g. coronal mass ejections, solar flare activity) as these are the sorts of things that cause bigger / brighter aurorae.
The Aurora is not an excessively bright event unless you are lucky. You might see nothing at all - be prepared for disappointment. You might be lucky to see Auroral sub-storms then again, you might not and the best you might see is a greyish, greenish smudge.
There are three colours that might show. Green (mostly) where highish energy particles strike Oxygen atoms low in the atmosphere, red (rarer than green) where lower energy particles strike Oxygen atoms higher in the atmosphere and violet (rare) where very high energy particles strike Nitrogen atoms.
As for movement of the Aurora... sometimes they appear stationary, at other times they might dance in front of your eyes.
No activity lasts forever (anything from a few seconds to a few minutes) so be prepared to take photographs at a moment's notice.
Keep your eyes open and be prepared to wait for a long time - sneaking indoors to get a cup of coffee will almost guarantee that you will miss any decent activity.
Look to the brightest part of the Aurora because that is where activity is most likely to start.
Wrap up warm otherwise it won't be your camera that gets a case of bad exposure.
Good luck.
Here's two that I took from the deck of a Norwegian ferry last year (so I had to try and take into account the tossing of the deck).
and
If you have a red light flashlight it's helpful to bring along as you can use it to find things in your camera bag, retrieve dropped batteries and car keys, etc without messing up your night vision...
Also, when I shot the aurora they were only barely visible to the naked eye... But on camera, they came out spectacular... I found the whole experience quite awe inspiring...
Thanks for all your input everyone!
Reg light torch.. great tip... i've gone and bought one. And thats a very good point about using something like a GL1 to illuminate the foreground if there's lots of people around. I'm starting to think i may actually want to do some creative PS after the fact to get a nicely lit foreground and a decent light
EDIT : I'm taking my trusty three legged thing brian so thats plenty stable enough for my 5D3. Its a heck of a lot more stable than the £5 tripod i borrowed from my friend to shoot this :)
Also... what are your thoughts regarding lenses.... i figure i'll just rent a good one. I've already got a canon 24-70L F2.8 mk2 but ideally i'd like somethign wider and faster, however, it doesnt look like i can rent one. looks like i have to go with either wider OR faster...
So.. would you all rather have had a faster lens or a wider lens?
- Canon 16-35mm F2.8
- Canon 24mm F1.4
- Canon EF 15mm f/2.8 Fisheye
- Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8 L II USM
- Canon 24-70mm f2.8 L II (mine)
- Canon 50mm f1.4 (mine)
I highly doubt that i'll use the last option.. its kind of a backup in case everythign else goes pear shaped. the 24-70 is really for shooting the family
I went last year. Photos show up from late March to early April. There are more colours than the eye can see and so I shot wide open and exposed for slightly longer than others have suggested. Equipment wise I had a sturdy tripod, wide angle wide aperture lens and shutter release. Fingerless gloves and thick soled boots are also quite good things to have cos I got v cold. My shots not the greatest but I was v happy. Enjoy.
I was reading up about getting thin inner gloves and then thick outer ones
Sturdy tripod.. check, its brian! Although i may get a shutter release because the IR canon one i have is a bit annoying with the 2 second delay
Hey everyone... sorry its taken so long to update this thread but time's been a little sparse lately.
We managed to pick one of the most awful weeks to go to iceland, severe storm warnings, hurricane force winds, iced roads, the works. The most solar activity was on a night that was overcast. All up, i managed to get one night to take a few pics but the northern ligths weren't visible to the naked eye.... this is the only workable shot i got ...