help setting up camera for northern lights.
Discussion
Would any of you kind folk be able to give me a little help (in terms that a complete amateur/numpty would understand) with the settings to best capture the northern lights (if we are lucky enough to see them) on our fast approaching trip to Iceland. Is it just a case of putting the camera on night mode?
Don't want to be stuck on a glacier somewhere trying to figure out why my pictures look crap and having no idea what to do haha.
any help or tips much appreciated.
P.s I'll try and find out the make and model of my camera tomorrow, its nothing fancy.
Don't want to be stuck on a glacier somewhere trying to figure out why my pictures look crap and having no idea what to do haha.
any help or tips much appreciated.
P.s I'll try and find out the make and model of my camera tomorrow, its nothing fancy.
Don’t know the camera, but you need the aperture as wide open as it will go and the lens as wide angle as you have.
Look for some foreground interest too rather than point to the sky alone
Even if you can only just see the northern lights, the camera will pick up a lot more detail and it will be enough, in fact when. I took some photos I couldn’t see anything but still the camera picked them up, so if you get a clear sky try anyhow, you can always delete the picture after if it’s black, the wonders of digital,
Look for some foreground interest too rather than point to the sky alone
Even if you can only just see the northern lights, the camera will pick up a lot more detail and it will be enough, in fact when. I took some photos I couldn’t see anything but still the camera picked them up, so if you get a clear sky try anyhow, you can always delete the picture after if it’s black, the wonders of digital,
https://happyworld.is/northern-lights-photography-...
Some cameras (not sure about panasonic) will let you see the photo “develop” on the screen.
Did some in Iceland and the camera will see more than you. Tripod is essential and remote release too.
Some cameras (not sure about panasonic) will let you see the photo “develop” on the screen.
Did some in Iceland and the camera will see more than you. Tripod is essential and remote release too.
This lady does work like that and may be able to help http://www.carterart.co.uk/home
This month's edition of "Sky at Night" magazine has a couple of articles on photographing the aurora which the OP might find helpful.
Also has references to sites such as this one....
https://services.swpc.noaa.gov/images/aurora-forec...
...which can give you an indication of how likely you are to see them.
Also has references to sites such as this one....
https://services.swpc.noaa.gov/images/aurora-forec...
...which can give you an indication of how likely you are to see them.
I'm not sure about your camera but you need to be able to control the aperture and exposure time. You'll also need a sturdy tripod as they are usually long exposures. I got lucky in Ireland in 2016 and shot these:
These are all 16 mm ƒ/3.5 30s ISO1600ish
Also remember that your eyes can take 30 mins+ to fully adapt to the darkness and before they do it can be slightly underwhelming.
These are all 16 mm ƒ/3.5 30s ISO1600ish
Also remember that your eyes can take 30 mins+ to fully adapt to the darkness and before they do it can be slightly underwhelming.
With no experience, I had a little play around with settings in Iceland last week and a bit of post-processing in Lightroom (edit - and a bit more brightening). I'm quite pleased with the results though wish I could've spent more time finding a good location.
Northern Lights - Selfoss, Iceland by Jason Cross, on Flickr
Northern Lights 2 - Selfoss, Iceland by Jason Cross, on Flickr
Northern Lights - Selfoss, Iceland by Jason Cross, on Flickr
Northern Lights 2 - Selfoss, Iceland by Jason Cross, on Flickr
Edited by toasty on Wednesday 13th March 07:14
BugLebowski said:
I'm not sure about your camera but you need to be able to control the aperture and exposure time. You'll also need a sturdy tripod as they are usually long exposures. I got lucky in Ireland in 2016 and shot these:
These are all 16 mm ƒ/3.5 30s ISO1600ish
Also remember that your eyes can take 30 mins+ to fully adapt to the darkness and before they do it can be slightly underwhelming.
The bottom picture is stunning, very nicely done.These are all 16 mm ƒ/3.5 30s ISO1600ish
Also remember that your eyes can take 30 mins+ to fully adapt to the darkness and before they do it can be slightly underwhelming.
You'll need to allow as much light onto your sensor as possible. If you don't already know, learn the relationship between aperture, ISO and exposure time. It's the single most important thing you can learn about photography, everything else is "just" composition. You're absolutely going to need to know this to get decent northern lights photos.
Keep your aperture wide open.
With your zoom set to wide, keep exposures around 15 seconds and adjust ISO to get the right exposure. Going over 15s (at 24mm focal length) you'll see star trails as the earth spins, your stars won't look as sharp. Going under will mean upping the ISO, resulting in a grainy photo.
If you use zoom, you will have to reduce that 15 seconds to avoid star trails.
You're going to need a tripod. You don't need a heavy fancy one, I got perfectly good results with a £30 travel tripod. I stabilised the tripod by making a hook and hanging my kit bag from it.
Pressing the shutter will cause visible camera shake. Use the shutter timer to avoid this.
Learn how to focus on infinity and lock the focus without being able to see anything on the viewfinder. Autofocus probably won't work due to lack of light. You can't focus on the lights themselves, so you focus on the stars behind them.
A red torch will allow you to fiddle with your bits without ruining your night vision. A torch with a good long distance spot beam may help you illuminate something far enough away to allow you to manually focus camera on infinity.
Don't underestimate just how cold it will be.
Pay someone for a northern lights safari. We used Kjetil Skogli in Tromso, Norway. That's no use to you, but he was worth every damn penny.
Most importantly, go out on a dark starry night here and practice taking a few shots of the stars. You will have problems with your kit or your technique, solve them BEFORE you get that once in a lifetime photo opportunity.
Keep your aperture wide open.
With your zoom set to wide, keep exposures around 15 seconds and adjust ISO to get the right exposure. Going over 15s (at 24mm focal length) you'll see star trails as the earth spins, your stars won't look as sharp. Going under will mean upping the ISO, resulting in a grainy photo.
If you use zoom, you will have to reduce that 15 seconds to avoid star trails.
You're going to need a tripod. You don't need a heavy fancy one, I got perfectly good results with a £30 travel tripod. I stabilised the tripod by making a hook and hanging my kit bag from it.
Pressing the shutter will cause visible camera shake. Use the shutter timer to avoid this.
Learn how to focus on infinity and lock the focus without being able to see anything on the viewfinder. Autofocus probably won't work due to lack of light. You can't focus on the lights themselves, so you focus on the stars behind them.
A red torch will allow you to fiddle with your bits without ruining your night vision. A torch with a good long distance spot beam may help you illuminate something far enough away to allow you to manually focus camera on infinity.
Don't underestimate just how cold it will be.
Pay someone for a northern lights safari. We used Kjetil Skogli in Tromso, Norway. That's no use to you, but he was worth every damn penny.
Most importantly, go out on a dark starry night here and practice taking a few shots of the stars. You will have problems with your kit or your technique, solve them BEFORE you get that once in a lifetime photo opportunity.
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