Photographing the northern lights

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HellsBells

HellsBells

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Heading to Iceland over Easter and will be taking my Nikon D40 and tripod to try and get some shots of the lights.

I'll google some hints and tips, but thought I'd ask on here first for tips on how to shoot them, and recommendations. It's a basic Slr, I have a basic 18-55 kit lens, 50mm prime and a 40-200mm zoom.

Thanks chaps.
 


I am sure smoker will appear soon.

No experience of these, I have never even seen them, but I would have thought the widest angle you have with focus set at infinity.

So the 18-55.

No doubt I will be totally wrong!
 
Someone mention my name?

You need:

1. A fast wide lens - your kit lens should be OK at 18mm, c.14mm at f2.8 is ideal for an APS-C format DSLR. The Samyang 14mm is a superb budget aurora lens.

2. Aperture as wide as you can get away with (ie lowest f number), lens quality permitting

3. Exposure as short as you can get away with. About 5-10 secs is ideal but you will need a bright display to get away with this. I tend to use 30 secs at ISO1000/f2.8

4. ISO as high as you can get away with, before it becomes too noisy, I settled on ISO 1000 for my EOS30D

Also

5. Shoot with the camera set on manual and use a remote shutter release cable.

6. Use a tripod. Don't piss about with a mini/lightweight effort, you may only travel to see them once.

7. Focus is a challenge, my tip would be to focus on the moon or some high cloud at day and mark the position with paint. Better still get a lens with good infinity focus and depth of field (eg aforementioned Samyang 14mm).

Hope that helps
 
I got mine from LensTip in Poland.

You can get them cheaper from Hong Kong on ebay, but might be warranty issues.

It's also badged as Rokinon.

A couple of aurora shots with the Samyang 14mm. Unfortunately UK shots and the one with the 10D is noisy.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/dangerous_astro/7592768102/in/set-72157628990059695

http://www.flickr.com/photos/dangerous_astro/6854107117/in/set-72157628990059695

The Samyang 8mm fisheye is also a great lens, slower at f3.5 but bags huge amounts of sky.
 
smoker said:
Snap.

Did you need to push that a fair bit, working at ISO200?
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Yeah, just looked back needed 2 stops extra. I remember having a bit of a nightmare that night, thought I had set iso at 800, had read somewhere that 15-30secs at iso 800 would be good. It looked like 800 without my glasses on!! had to keep swapping tripods with my daughter, she forget the qr plate for hers, my lens was fogging up and all sorts went wrong. Was delighted to see the aurora tho :) and get a few usable shots.

Need another one.
 
MaDMaCKeM said:
Yeah, just looked back needed 2 stops extra. I remember having a bit of a nightmare that night, thought I had set iso at 800, had read somewhere that 15-30secs at iso 800 would be good. It looked like 800 without my glasses on!! had to keep swapping tripods with my daughter, she forget the qr plate for hers, my lens was fogging up and all sorts went wrong. Was delighted to see the aurora tho :) and get a few usable shots.

Need another one.
Click to expand...

It's a great shot like, despite your gear troubles.

A 12V hairdryer or small two-channel dew controller and band will keep the dew away. That said I have had some joy simply using two lenses and keeping the redundant one in an inside pocket to un-dew.
 
I wouldn't bother - if you're lucky enough to see them just live the moment rather than faffing about trying to work out how to capture it on "fillum".

There's plenty of library foties of the lights, but you may only get this one chance in your life to sit and just take in the awesomeness of it all.
 
Flared Hicks said:
I wouldn't bother - if you're lucky enough to see them just live the moment rather than faffing about trying to work out how to capture it on "fillum".

There's plenty of library foties of the lights, but you may only get this one chance in your life to sit and just take in the awesomeness of it all.
Click to expand...

Weez this clownshoe?
 
FFS man, it's not like it's a solar eclipse and only lasts five minutes. Displays generally last a few hours with several bursts of activity. I got hundreds of pics back in August, when the night only lasted a couple of hours, and still had plenty of time to enjoy the displays.

Add to that, if the display is weak, you will have fuck all to show for your trip if you don't take your camera.
 
smoker said:
FFS man, it's not like it's a solar eclipse and only lasts five minutes. Displays generally last a few hours with several bursts of activity. I got hundreds of pics back in August, when the night only lasted a couple of hours, and still had plenty of time to enjoy the displays.

Add to that, if the display is weak, you will have fuck all to show for your trip if you don't take your camera.
Click to expand...

You could always have a decent shag under the lights.
 
Flared Hicks said:
I wouldn't bother - if you're lucky enough to see them just live the moment rather than faffing about trying to work out how to capture it on "fillum".

There's plenty of library foties of the lights, but you may only get this one chance in your life to sit and just take in the awesomeness of it all.
Click to expand...

That's always going to be a hard sell on a photography forum...
 
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