How to shoot "northern lights" (aurora borealis)?

[hockey44]

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Hello,

I am heading to northers Sweden for the holidays with M240, Q2, Nocti.  Any suggestions how best to shoot "northern lights" (hopefully!).  I am taking a tripod along as well. Is it worth bringing 35mm FLE as well?

Many thanks,

Ed

[andybarton]

I used my M240 and a 24 Elmarit-M (mostly) to shoot the aurora near Tromso a few years ago. Obviously I was using a tripod - 8 second exposure, IIRC.

We were very lucky.

Keep a spare battery in your inner coat pocket.

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[andybarton]

35mm Summicron-M ASPH

8 seconds

ISO 200

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24mm Elmarit-M ASPH

8 Seconds

1600 ISO

[hockey44]

Fantastic!  Amazing-- was this wide open I assume?  What do you think with Q2 as well, similar 8 sec?  I guess I am going to have to bring the 35FLE as Nocti will be a bit tight on such amazing image... Did you have filters on lens?\

Many thanks for quick reply

[andybarton]

Thanks, and you're welcome.

I would think that they were both shot wide open.

If you use ISO 200, and f2.8, 8 seconds will be a good place to start. I have never even held a Q2, but exposure is exposure...

No filters.

I did place my hand over the lower part of the second shot, to avoid completely blowing out the bonfire, about half way through the exposure. Live View is your friend.

Later in the evening, near midnight, the whole sky was flowing green, but I had stopped taking photographs by that time was was just watching in awe.

You should be aware that the lights don't actually look like this in real life - this is 8 seconds of activity and a digital sensor picks up the colours much more readily than your eyes do. Our guide was using the rear screen of his Canon, to see when the lights started, and my wife, who is red/green colour blind was convinced that the lights were just clouds to start with. 

[hockey44]

That is really helpful-- I just assumed the lights would (if) be there and obvious!  So does that mean if not visible still worth trying to shoot?  We drove all the way from London to Lofoton the previous summer but since it was light nearly 20+ hours no chance to see anything... (let alone try to sleep...hah)...I will try the same ISO 200 as well on my trusty M240....just paid a lot to get Leica to make some repairs, adjustments....but heck, if it works, it works!  I have a Digilux2 but think I will leave it at home.  Point well taken on batteries and warm pocket!

[andybarton]

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They are obvious, and when we were there (early March) they seemed to "develop" as the evening wore on. They start slowly and build up. If you're not colour blind, they are obvious, but not necessarily as bright as you see in a photograph.

We will be in Lofoten next May, (Sandtorgholmen / Svolvaer / Sorvagen / Henningsvaer) so again, not expecting to see anything in the twilight/dawn.

[andybarton]

They build from something like this

 

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[andybarton]

But even if they did't show, living in the NW of England, it would have been great just to see some stars.

 

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[andybarton]

Hopefully, you will be as lucky as we were. The sun activity is getting stronger, so your chances are even better than ours were.

Last one...

 

 

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[hockey44]

I can't wait....we were in New Zealand about a decade ago and I could not believe how amazing the stars were.... I didn't have a tripod along and tried everything with camera (240) on car roof and timers, but just too much movement....

Did you just set lens to infinity  and use live view to 'aim' and then timer on 8 sec and voila?  Oddly on my Noctilux it 'seems' that infinity is a tab bit off so I need to back it off just a touch to make sure the best.. that is why I could the Visioflex, but find it so slow and irritating...especially if you are trying to take images of people, but the time you get it nailed, they have moved a tad.  So use the Overgaard approach of just rocking a tiny amount and don't touch the focus once close...had a great experience on a course with him about 10y ago in NYC.

[andybarton]

19 minutes ago, hockey44 said:

Did you just set lens to infinity  and use live view to 'aim' and then timer on 8 sec and voila?

Yep.

[jaeger]

3 hours ago, andybarton said:

 

24mm Elmarit-M ASPH

8 Seconds

1600 ISO

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Your mannequin friends ain't moving for 8 seconds in this photo. 

[andybarton]

They must have been breathing.