Northern Lights, what settings on a Canon 450d

[Mr Freefall]

After some advice here

I have a Canon 450d, I’m not too clued up all the settings and what they do etc, but do play with the B&W and Macro settings. I'm off to see if the Northern Lights will present themselves in March, and was going to take my 450d with me.

I have a couple of lenses. It’s the twin set version with the 15- 85mm and 55 - 250mm, and I have a couple of filters, one for bright light and one for low light.

So what will I need to be able to get some good shots of the lights, what sort of setting should I be looking to use.

Any help here would be appreciated.

Many thanks

Mr F

[JJM]

I look forward to seeing how you get on as this is a trip I have been wanting to do for a long time, and also you have same SLR as me.

Take a look at this thread as it may be of some help.

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a... Northern Lights&mid=133948

Although in summary you will need the following...

- Tripod
- Remote shutter trigger
- Kit lens / wide angle lens
- Spare battery

Cheers,

J

[Mr Freefall]

JJM said:

I look forward to seeing how you get on as this is a trip I have been wanting to do for a long time, and also you have same SLR as me.

Take a look at this thread as it may be of some help.

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a... Northern Lights&mid=133948

Although in summary you will need the following...

- Tripod
- Remote shutter trigger
- Kit lens / wide angle lens
- Spare battery

Cheers,

J

Cheers J, the link was excellent. I have bough a tripod, and now just hunting down that lens for less that £300.

BTW, the Norther lights are meant to be at one of their strogest levels this year, and peaking about March 5th or so. But, you never can rely on Mother nature I suppose.


Mr F

[Mr Freefall]

JJM said:

I look forward to seeing how you get on as this is a trip I have been wanting to do for a long time, and also you have same SLR as me.

Take a look at this thread as it may be of some help.

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a... Northern Lights&mid=133948

Although in summary you will need the following...

- Tripod
- Remote shutter trigger
- Kit lens / wide angle lens
- Spare battery

Cheers,

J

Well, just wanted to update this thread. We went out to Iceland this weekend gone, and I took a Canon 450d with a Sigma 10-20mm 4.0-5.5f 77mm lens, some spare batteries, tripod. Armed with some research on the settings to use, but no prior experience, was didn’t really know what to expect.

I shot at 10mm, 4.0f ISO800, partial metering, and cloudy setting with a 25 second shutter exposure. This is the first time I have ever used a camera like this, and the first time I have gone to see if I can see the Northern Lights.

Here are the results. I think we were very lucky to see what we saw. We landed at 4pm, went out at 8pm, and the lights were out for about 1.5 hours on and off, till about 11pm.

[YorkshirePudding]

Looks like you had a good trip, some crackers there.

[Seany88]

Wow, very jealous! Went out in Feb and didn't see anything!

Love the one with the coach in it, although why were people using flashes?

[minky monkey]

Fab shots, caught the colours really well. But they really need the horizons levelling!

[Mr Freefall]

minky monkey said:

Fab shots, caught the colours really well. But they really need the horizons levelling!

Yep, I have adjusted the horizon at home. It ranged from just 1 degree to 4 degrees on some photos to get them straight. Problem was, it was one of those organised trips, so as we chased down the lights, everyone got off the coach and the lights move so fast, you dont have much time to set the tripod level up, you have to aim, and shoot and see what you get.

Luckly, the angles were just slight, so I have still gone some really nice photo's. Going to get one put on a big canvass and put it on the wall at home.

Mr F