Northern Lights pics????
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This is a spankingly good question - i was up in north norway last year and while did get some snaps to remind me they dont do it justace.
Something i didnt know is that the cycle of lights goes in an 8 year fluctuation. I think now is near the 'bottom' of the curve in relation to the amount and frequency of their occurance. There are some really good websites run from a canadian university but that cover all northern activity and forecast very accurately the time locations and the intensity.
Something i didnt know is that the cycle of lights goes in an 8 year fluctuation. I think now is near the 'bottom' of the curve in relation to the amount and frequency of their occurance. There are some really good websites run from a canadian university but that cover all northern activity and forecast very accurately the time locations and the intensity.
Its actually 11 years...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_cycle
Yes activities near the minimum now. I saw an article saying that its actually slightly delayed in climbing back up but can't find the link now.
The northern lights are a notoriously difficult subject to photograph. Google is your friend - and photography related forums.
COOOOOOBWEB, WAAAAALAND where are you ?
A refresher on exposures would be much appreciated
Cheers
Stephen
A refresher on exposures would be much appreciated
Cheers
Stephen
I tried on loads of exposures, closest I got was a green tinge... I was in the middle of a frozen lake, zero light pollution tripod, remote shutter release and still no joy meh
This is one of the circumstances where film should out perform digital. Very long exposure on a normal digital camera often leads to excessive digital noise, which looks like heavy film grain, and will reduce detail and colour rendition in the image.
Film doesn't suffer from this effect, however unlike digital you will be battling with reciprocity. Which in a nutshell means longer and longer shutter times give disproportionately less and less actual exposure.
Time to dig that old 35mm out of the cupboard?
Film doesn't suffer from this effect, however unlike digital you will be battling with reciprocity. Which in a nutshell means longer and longer shutter times give disproportionately less and less actual exposure.
Time to dig that old 35mm out of the cupboard?
I tried on loads of exposures, closest I got was a green tinge... I was in the middle of a frozen lake, zero light pollution tripod, remote shutter release and still no joy meh
Did you try cranking up the ISO to shoot shorter exposures as randomly moving lights would I expect turn to one big blur like moving water.
Depending on your camera noise can be dealt with though it doubles to exposure time.
First of all, do not rely on the screen of your camera to tell you if the exposure is correct. You will be standing in the dark, with dark adapted eyes, and the image will appear lighter than it really is.
Use the histogram function on your camera, shoot in raw and make sure the exposure is right up towards the right hand end of the histogram. The image will look too bright but can be adjusted in the raw converter.
If your images are underexposed you will get results rendered unusable by noise so better to make sure the sensor receives as much light as possible. Open your aperture right up for the lights and if necessary take a separate shot to render the foreground detail.
Exposures will vary considerably but will be several seconds in most cases. A tripod is essential, if you don't have one, put your camera away and just enjoy looking at them.
Good luck, it's a magical experience if you see them.
Many thanks folks, all the advise will be put into use.
I hope the Canon G9 and gorilla pod combo does the trick, although will have to rest it on the rucsac to get a stable platform on which to rest the pod.
Wayland: very useful advise, many thanks; didn't think of using the histogram and overexposing the exposure. Should i dial in an exposure time, or leave it to the camera?
I hope the Canon G9 and gorilla pod combo does the trick, although will have to rest it on the rucsac to get a stable platform on which to rest the pod.
Wayland: very useful advise, many thanks; didn't think of using the histogram and overexposing the exposure. Should i dial in an exposure time, or leave it to the camera?
It's actually a combination of a seven year cycle and an eleven year cycle which depend on the earth's wobble and movement around the sun.
Check out the thread on needing a real map rather than GPS.
Also, do you always take a tripod out with you or do you fudge it when you need a long exposure at dusk/dawn?
Thanks for the clarification. I was just referring to the 11 cycle of sunspot activity, rather than the other factors at work, but good point.
Tripod carrying or not really depends on how important a part of your trip the photography is I suppose.
If your G9 is anything like my G10 you will probably have to go manual or Shutter priority "Tv" to get long enough exposures as the Program and Aperture priority settings cop out of setting shutter speeds that cannot be hand held.
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Hi
Try this guys website http://foto.kskogli.no/ went on one of his trips with wife and kids and it was superb, our camera did not work, so he allowed us to use his with my memory card, kids took loads, camers setting was 10s F2 iso400 or 6s F1.8 if that means anything.
Would post one but do not know how to.
Try this guys website http://foto.kskogli.no/ went on one of his trips with wife and kids and it was superb, our camera did not work, so he allowed us to use his with my memory card, kids took loads, camers setting was 10s F2 iso400 or 6s F1.8 if that means anything.
Would post one but do not know how to.
Found that one on the royal navy website today!
Im currently in the process of applying to the RFA and so if successful, may hopefully find myself shipping troops and gear up to norway and get to experience a scene like that myself!
Alec
