Northern lights - Amateur

[Designer]

What about the auroras movement?I'm trying to lower the shutter speed to get more detail in. I'll give it a try any way Thank you!

Yes, I considered that, but even at 20 seconds, you're going to get motion blur, and any still photo will not convey the motion anyway.

The best way to capture the motion is to make a video. I think it has been done, but I don't know what kind of camera was used.

 

[Arx]

I see them. I can’t click them to make them bigger though.

I think they look cool.

The wb is something you can adjust in post. I wouldn’t worry about it so much while shooting. Especially a shot like this where there’s no real reference to what the colors should be (the stars might be the only way to tell).

I don’t know if it’s possible to open up your aperture any more to be able to shorten your shutter speed. You might be able to get less movement from the Aurora.

That's informative, thank you! I just checked my camera and it can go down to F 3.5 with ISO 3200 and shutter 10-30 seconds. Yesterday when I was on shooting I thought I had my aperture as down as possible but I guess I was wrong.

Your Tamron 18-200 will open up to f/3.5 at 18mm. As you extend the range to 200 it gets to f/6.3 quite quickly.

I use a 18-35/3.5-4.5 also. As the f/3.5 is faster @18mm than the more expensive 18-35/4 but much cheaper and lighter than the 18-35/2.8 lenses. Sometimes fixed apertures such as f/4s are slower at certain focal lengths than variable aperture lenses and if you use it at wide angle all the time, you'll be slightly faster (and save a lot of money).

Then I believe at least 1 or 2 of the photos I posted here are with the aperture of F/ 3.5 because I mostly used 18mm length. First one is definitely not 18mm though.
Thank you!

FYI, just because you are at 18mm does not mean you are at f/3.5
at 18mm you can select from f/3.5 up to f/22 (as an example)
at say 35mm your lens may allow you to use f/4 up to f/22
at 100mm your lens may allow you to use f/5.6 to f/22
at 200mm your lens would be from f/6.3 to f/22

Always check your aperture setting as with a variable aperture lens it may not be what you think it is.

I'll keep in mind to check my aperture!

 

[goooner]

Nice shots, 1st shot is F5.6, the other 2 are F5, according to exifviewer.

 

[Jeff15]

Nice shots.....

 

[D7K]

Nice set, it's on my list of must shoots. Having never shot it, I could only say that maybe you want to keep the SS around 12-15 seconds to prevent any blur of the stars (experiment as your camera maybe different, there's a number of websites that will help you calculate that). Keep at f/3.5 if you can, You can always crop afterwards, also maybe take multiple shots or bracket and then you can stack them to help reduce noise as NR when used heavily does kill a lot of detail. Happy shooting!

 

[birdbonkers84]

Shoot in RAW,
Shoot wide open i.e f/3.5
Start at 1600-3200 ISO,
Get photopills app helps you calculate the shutter speed based on your set up, or you could try doing it in your head, your choice.
Take around 10 consecutive images and stack them in Photoshop to reduce the noise (can easily show you or point you in the right direction).
If you are on a Mac then I would get the program Starry Landscape Stacker, great program for reducing noise etc; gutted it is only for the Mac.
Practice.

They look great btw

 

[Arx]

Nice set, it's on my list of must shoots. Having never shot it, I could only say that maybe you want to keep the SS around 12-15 seconds to prevent any blur of the stars (experiment as your camera maybe different, there's a number of websites that will help you calculate that). Keep at f/3.5 if you can, You can always crop afterwards, also maybe take multiple shots or bracket and then you can stack them to help reduce noise as NR when used heavily does kill a lot of detail. Happy shooting!

Thank you, great information! The first time you capture auroras on your camera feels amazing...well at least for me it did! Good luck!

 

[Arx]

Shoot in RAW,
Shoot wide open i.e f/3.5
Start at 1600-3200 ISO,
Get photopills app helps you calculate the shutter speed based on your set up, or you could try doing it in your head, your choice.
Take around 10 consecutive images and stack them in Photoshop to reduce the noise (can easily show you or point you in the right direction).
If you are on a Mac then I would get the program Starry Landscape Stacker, great program for during noise etc; gutted it is only for the Mac.
Practice.

They look great btw

Thank you! Great tips to follow. Although if I'm shooting the stars or auroras with Shutter Speed around 15 seconds, won't the stars/auroras move after I've completed 10 shots for bracketing?

 

[birdbonkers84]

Shoot in RAW,
Shoot wide open i.e f/3.5
Start at 1600-3200 ISO,
Get photopills app helps you calculate the shutter speed based on your set up, or you could try doing it in your head, your choice.
Take around 10 consecutive images and stack them in Photoshop to reduce the noise (can easily show you or point you in the right direction).
If you are on a Mac then I would get the program Starry Landscape Stacker, great program for during noise etc; gutted it is only for the Mac.
Practice.

They look great btw

Thank you! Great tips to follow. Although if I'm shooting the stars or auroras with Shutter Speed around 15 seconds, won't the stars/auroras move after I've completed 10 shots for bracketing?

Yes, but stacking your images in PS sorts that for you That was my exact same response when I started stacking images.

 

[Grandpa Ron]

Did you see the Aurora of just a gray cloud?

I have some nice aurora photos but they were only gray shapes to the naked eye.

It took 30 seconds at an ISO of 6400 to bring the color out.