Advice on photographing Icelandic Aurora

[Fulhair]

Hello all,

I'm new to photographing the sky but next week I'm ticking off one of the to do on my bucket list - I'm off to Iceland with the aim of seeing the aurora.

I've only got 2 nights and whilst weather (both atmospheric and space) is in the lap of the gods, I'd like to try my best and get a picture of them.

I've got a Canon 550d DSLR with a 17-55 f2.8 Sigma lens. Tripod (cheap but seems sturdy), a remote wired trigger and a grip with spare batteries. I plan to wrap up warm

I tried the other night to get a picture of one in the UK but either I miss timed it or my part of the world has the worst light polution.

Anyway, I'd welcome your tips on set up and what to consider.

Cheers!

[sbooder]

"Advice on photographing Icelandic Aurora"

Wrap up warm!

[Stevp]

"Advice on photographing Icelandic Aurora"

Don't forget to "just look" and enjoy it, the photograph is the bonus not the purpose. That being said, I can't really give any tips and I'm very envious of your trip best of luck and hopefully some good results to share In a week or two!!

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Fulhair]

Don't forget to "just look" and enjoy it

I'll be pretty stoke just to see the aurora, and could easily come away with seeing nothing but clouds, but finger crossed (and in some warm gloves) I get more than a green blur on camera!

[peem]

Hi I would use your lens at 17mm f2.8 eeposure 5 to 15 secs iso 16000 on the tripod

[michael8554]

Turn AF and IS off.
Set the zoom to 17mm
Manual focus during the day on a distant object, then tape up the focus and zoom so they can't move.
ISO 1600
RAW
About 15 second exposures, it's a balance between star trails, blurred aurora,  and over exposure.

There was an earlier thread on Aurora that included details on hiring a fast wide angle lens for not much money, wish I'd seen that before I went to Norway.

[Fulhair]

Thanks all for the advice. Came in helpful on my trip. Unfortunaly we had 30% chance of activity on our best night but we barely saw anything. 

That said I'd like to share some aditional advice I learn't - some may be thinking "No S*** shelock" but I found it useful.

First is that a DSLR is far more sensitive than your eye and though we saw a faint green smudge, the camera showed far more detail and even some reds that couldn't see. ISO 800 worked best for me but we we had a full cover of snow and haf moon so there was more light about. Visulaly observing was poots and we ended up huddling round the camera waiting the 15 seconds exposure to confirm if it was a cloud or auroura. I also lowed the light intensity on my lcd to preserve my eyes adapting to darkness. Later when I went in and I put it back up I saw I'd much more detail. So even if you are not sure your are seeing auroura, keep shooting as you can just delete the results aftewards if not worthwhile.

Tripod and wired shutter release is a must. A fast wide lens is also highly adviseable. At f2.8  at 17mm on a crop sensor I picked the aurora up well considering. I had planned to rent the toninka 11-16 f2.8 (was £32) for a wide angle but left it too late. If we'd have had a large  display I'd have been dissapointed to miss out on good full sky photos.   We tried my friends compact camera on a triped with the widest apperture, high iso and 15 sec  but the results were pretty poor.

We stayed out in the country for a night so had all night to periodically check. The weather varied quickly throughout the night and the aurora came and went so if we'd have been on a tour, we'd have likely missed them. So If you are really keen build that into your travel plans.

Keep some landscape or another reference object in the frame, otherwise it's just a green and stars and you end up having to explain the photo.

Took several batteries but only used the one and tried the hand/foot warmers but they were useless.

Finally, I found I'd taken some sequence shots, just not moved the tripod and kept the setting. Photo shopped them into a little gif which I'm fond of. Worthwhile trying to do one of these if you get the chance

Cheers

[Fulhair]

Sorry, with image this time... couldn't figuire out how to post these?