Photographing the Northern Lights

[Host Sharon]

This is what we were told (or learned the hard way) on how to photograph the Northern Lights in 2014.

 

First and most important - point and shoot automatic cameras, video cameras and iPads will not work. You have to be able set your camera up for long exposures - at least 15 secs and more if possible.

Use a tripod

Use as wide an angle lens as possible.

Switch to manual setting

Switch off flash - it will spoil everyone else's pictures and won't help yours.

Take off all filters including UV and Skylight - they reduce the light hitting the lens

Switch off vibration/shake reduction if available

Use an ISO of 400 (according to the onboard photographers) or 500 + (according to the local experts)

Set camera to as large an aperture as available

Set to bulb and experiment but you need exposures of at least 15 secs up to around to 10 mins

Set to daylight setting NOT fluorescent or artificial light or the colours won't be true

Use lens hood to keep frost/snow/ice off lens

Pre-focus to infinity or on a tree etc

Take spare batteries and keep in thermal sock close to body.

Take a small torch or headlight so you can see to set up the tripod etc.

 

And lastly - DON'T PANIC if/when the digital screen stops working! This happened to me and I thought the camera was broken but kept taking anyway. The screen came back on when it warmed up.

[Captain Canuck]

last poster just reminded me of trip to Yellowknife for work in winter...local RCMP took me for a drive out onto a frozen lake to see the lights....was going to take pictures but so cold the shutter on my Pentax film camera froze..so no pics

[mike x ftc]

I'm still processing my photos using Adobe Lightroom but have uploaded half a dozen to Flickr (click here) so you can see what's achievable from the ship.

 

Your pictures are absolutely stunning - thank you so much for sharing. Could I ask what camera you use??

[simonpjd]

Rather than a long exposure some cameras have a setting which takes about 15 shots in 2 seconds or so, then superimposes them all into one shot. We got some excellent results with a small hand held compact camera doing this. Worth a try is you don’t want to faff about with tripods and expensive cameras.

Great shots of the lights doing this on Oriana last March.

 

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

[jimgri]

Your pictures are absolutely stunning - thank you so much for sharing. Could I ask what camera you use??

 

Thanks for the feedback, Mike. I'm glad you liked the photos. I use a Fujifilm X-E2 which is a mirrorless camera. The lens was a very wide angle, ie 12mm, manual Samyang lens. In general terms, I would say that any camera that allows you to set long exposures manually (mine were between 20-30 seconds for the Northern Lights pics) will be OK so long as you also use a tripod.