Best settings for the Northern Lights

Ducky13 · 08-27-2015, 06:03 AM

Hi All,

I am off to the Lofoten islands in Norway next month & am really keen to get some amazing shots of the Northern lights if I am lucky enough to see them. I own a K-30, 18-135mm WR lens with a shutter remote control & a decent tripod.

Truth is I am quite a noob & would appreciate it if you could please let me know what the optimal settings are for what I have. I would need to get it right the first time as the Northern lights wont stick around for much time.

Thank you in advance for any help!

Cheers,
Ducky

normhead · 08-27-2015, 06:36 AM

Here's what I used for a starting point, someone on the forum recommended it, so credit is due, I just can't remember who it was.

I eventually tried some star shots with exposures as long as three minutes to reduce the ISO and get cleaner images using bulb mode.

I found 90 seconds and 800 ISO was about it. More than that you start getting star trails.

Here's an image of the milky way, with a meteor bottom left. (too faint to see I guess).

veato · 08-27-2015, 06:43 AM

I've never shot the Northern Lights but as with night/astro photography I'd go with long exposure, wide aperture, up the ISO and of course stabilise the camera on a tripod and fire with a remote. I suppose on your lens I'd start with ISO1600, 18mm, f/3.5, 30 seconds and go from there.

DeadJohn · 08-27-2015, 07:28 AM

Ducky, as for many things, "it depends". Manual mode, 30 seconds, ISO 1600, 18mm, widest aperture possible is a good start.

30 seconds can be too long if the aurora is rapidly shifting; you'll just get a blur of color rather than a clear view of the aurora "curtain". Reduce exposure time and increase ISO if needed.

Shoot in DNG+JPG mode. JPG gives you an easy result, raw DNG lets you process it later to bring out faint details.

Practice at home. You might have no aurora to photograph and too much light pollution to make a good long exposure, but it will still let you confirm camera settings and get familiar with shooting in the dark.

Research "dark frame subtraction" or "long exposure noise reduction". It's a menu setting but I forget the exact wording Pentax uses for it. It takes a photo with the shutter open as usual, then takes an equally long dark image with the shutter closed to subtract noise. Turn it off if you are using the intervalometer or otherwise taking many photos, because you'll waste too much waiting for those dark frames. Maybe keep it off for most of your night shooting, then turn it on for a few photos so you can compare results.

If the remote isn't working, no big deal, just turn on the 2-second interval timer to let vibrations settle. 2 seconds is enough with wide angle; 12 seconds wastes time unless you need it for a long lens.

**Pete_XL** · 08-27-2015, 07:56 AM

I had the rare chance to get pictures an a short timelaps video of polar lights "deep in the south" at 51,7°N this March (see below).

My proposal for your setup: camera set to M-mode. White balance to 5300 (can be corrected later as you shoot in raw). Set lens max wide to 18 mm. To get stars and the Aurora Borealis bright I would open the aperture full (F3.5 in your case I think) at ISO 1.600 and maximize exposure time. The max time is restricted by the rotationg stars (trailing) and the variations in time of the polar lights.

The max exposure time can be calculated roughly according to the rule of 500. It is 500/(18 [F-Stop] x 1.5 [crop factor])=18secs for your lens. So I would make a test shoot with 15 s and zoom in to see, if the stars are well rounded and pinpoint sharp. If not reduce to 10 secs. If the polar lights move or vibrate fast reduce exposure time and increase ISO. Shoot in RAW, you get a lot out of the dark part of the histogram in post processing. Always make a longer series with the same settings, not just single photos. For that use interval mode with exposure time + 2 seconds as interval time. Better than interval mode is to set camera to continous mode and use a remote control at "constant fire" or buy the triggertrap system. If you have noisereduction activated use double of exposure time to calculate interval time (I would set NR to OFF and fight noise in post processing). Think about using flash light, LED or pocket lamp to make some illumination of the foreground in the one or the other photo to blend it into the final Picture later if you were lucky with the lightpainting.

It can not be bad to shoot pictures of the landscape during the blue hour when there is enough light left to illuminate the beautiful landscape. Perhaps you can blend it smartly into the final picture to have the landscape be part of the result.

If you want the still-picture-series to function also as material for a a timelapse video at the end, you must disable noise reduction in every case.

You Tube

Good Luck and please show us the results in any case!

amber waters · 08-27-2015, 06:42 PM

I found myself among the northern lights this past June. I used my K5 with the DA15. Took a ton of photos and each one was with the same settings: F/4, ISO 1600, and 30 sec exposure. Here's a few of them:

Im very jealous of your trip! Hope you get to see them while you're there.

normhead · 08-27-2015, 07:25 PM

Lots of good stuff here.

**Pete_XL** · 08-27-2015, 10:47 PM

Originally posted by amber waters

F/4, ISO 1600, and 30 sec exposure. Here's a few of them .

The colours, look and feel of your photos are phantastic - great shots!!! Without intending to dimisch the photographic achievement (hope the wording is allright, I am not a native speaker) I would like to comment that the main challange in shooting the Northern Lights can be seen:

The necessity to get enough photons of the dim lights onto the sensor and overcome its sensitivity threshold leads to long exposure times - and often to oval stars or slight trailing. This can only be counteracted by shortening the expoure time - and it gets dark. If the aperture is already wide open the only corrective is to raise ISO-value even more and shorten exposure time (e.g. 15 s instead of 30 s and ISO 3.200 instead of 1.600). One gets more grain but this can normaly be handled later in pp. Or leave the ISO as it is and rely on the on the low-light quality of you camera shooting RAWs. In my experience (with the K-5) the light reserve in the RAW pictures is big enough to risk slightly underexposed originals and regain the polar lights during post processing. Shorter exposure also leads to more details in the structure and colours of the lights.

Once more: your pictures are great, much better than anything I ever achieved in this context. I am only turning the screws on the last 2% missing to perfection

hence84 · 08-27-2015, 11:50 PM

Just a thought, could you be able to use the multiexposure mode in some good way to shoot Aurora Lights? Maybe the "Bright" setting who only record the Bright part in the Picture if I understand it correctly?

**Pete_XL** · 08-28-2015, 12:08 AM

Originally posted by hence84

Just a thought, could you be able to use the multiexposure mode in some good way to shoot Aurora Lights? Maybe the "Bright" setting who only record the Bright part in the Picture if I understand it correctly?

You probably would get more trailing because the stars would pierce through in each exposure. Also I would expect more blur in the polar lights.

Dabola · 08-28-2015, 02:15 AM

As an inhabitant of northern Norway perhaps I should give you some advices. My first Pentax was a ME - more than 30 years ago. At that time I lived in Svanvik, 200 meter from the Russian border, at the northeastern edge of Norway. Up there it was extremely much northern light during the winter. Now I'm living at Dønna, an island 120 km south of Lofoten. The 2nd picture on this tourist webpage for Northern Norway ("the island of Lovund") is taken from a small mountain 2 km from where I am now. After arrival you will see the same island.

Lofoten is located at the 68th and 69th parallels north , and then you're north of 99% of Alaska and Siberia. Still, you should have been one step further north. Don't disunderstand, both Lofoten and Dønna has a lot of northern light but still not as much as in Finnmark, the most northern region of Norway. On the other hand, Lofoten is perfect (better than Finnmark), for the other elements of your motif; mountains, sea, lakes.... I am sure you've already seen a lot of pictures of Lofoten.

My main advice is to get out into the nature. Avoid other sources of light and try to get into complete darkness. Be aware that northern lights very often behaves more like clouds during a windy day. Sometimes they are stable but most of the time it's like on a theatre; it's on and off, lights are changing, the volume up... move 5-10 degrees to the right, then a few minutes later it gradually disappear... Then bang, its coming back but then 45 degrees to the left. This can occure for hours or just a few minutes. As you probably already know, optimal time is before sunrise and after sunset. At this norwegian webpage you can see the time of sunrise and sunset for October in Svolvær, the largest "Town" of Lofoten. The 1st of October sunrise is 07:13 and sunset 18:28. (Below you will find link for September). Next column is for length of day, then 3 colums for darkness ("tussmørke"). Astronomic, Natural and Ordinary. Because you're up in polar area the sunrise and -set takes much longer time than down in the middle of Europe. Due to that we have 3 categories of darkness. (Like we have 20 different names of snow). Press the link on the third column for the 1st of October (called (263°) and you will see that the sun is just a few degrees below the horizon at the middle of the night. If you get up at 6 AM in Lofoten the 1st of Oct. then you're most probably too late! If this is the main reason for the journey then I would have brought with me a sleeping bag and a tent. In Norway everybody are free to stay where ever they want - as long as you are out in the nature (outside farmland). Hotels/hostels are located in the small towns. 10-20 minutes biking or/and half an hours walk is a "must" to get to optimal places for using your Pentax to grab the northern lights. Why not then just stay out in the nature? Tip; put an advertisement in the local newspaper "Tourist pays 30 Euro to rent a tent, sleeping bag + + for 10 days in Lofoten" Write the head in Norwegian; "Turist betaler 250 kr for å leie telt, sovepose, underlag + + i 10 dager" and then go on in english. Print an interim email by Google etc. to get in touch with you. This is just a proposal. Perhaps you have already paid for the hotel...

Here you will find som pictures taken by a man in Tromsø.

An Observatory of Aurora up at Svalbard have a Auroral forecast service by an Android software. Lofoten is within their covered area but I don't know anything about it. Perhaps you could try to download and get some experience. Don't forget that the aurora are extremely local. It is impossible to predict this variation. At the same time the aurora is "switched off" completely for days. This is most probably something that is possible to forecast by the geomagnetic activity. E.g: "Good conditions for Aurora the next 3 days in Lofoten, expesially from 1am until..." University of Tromsø has a webpage with 24 hours plot of Realtime Magnetogram. Try the links at the left for "Dønna" and "Andenes". (Lofoten is in the middle between.) And you can see a graph of the Aurora activity here at Dønna (where I'm living) during the last 24 hours. You will see very much the same graph for "Andenes" - just north of Lofoten. Try to do it for several days and you will most probably see that this pattern goes on for days. E.g. last night the geomagnetic activity peaked just before midnight and approx 5 AM. (Perhaps I should go out and take a look tonight and try to make a picture... Unfortunately, today it's cloudy/rainy). Back to the Pentax.

VisitNorway has made a webpage, How to Shoot the Northern Lights I also have the 18-135mm, but I would have prefered to use another lens. Even the standard 18-55 is better in the wide end. A wide angle to grab both the mountains or sea ... and the northern light perhaps 20-30-40 degrees above the horizon. At the same time a prime lens 40-50 mm.

Written by DeadJohn yesterday: "30 seconds can be too long if the aurora is rapidly shifting; you'll just get a blur of color rather than a clear view of the aurora "curtain". Reduce exposure time and increase ISO if needed..." I agree. Also about "Blur of color". But i'm afraid it's more in the middle of the winter you can experience a facinating theatre; all the steps from deep green to light red to blue at the same time.... For me 30 seconds sounds much too long. In 1 out of 10-20 occations the northern lighs are rather stable. But most of the time it changes rapidly and then I would have tried to increase the ISO instead. 1600-3200... It also change rapidly over time. Five minutes with intensive flashes then completely swiched off for half an hour. And so on again.. Due to this you will experience that the scenery was better 1 minutes ago. Because of this; Try to get some experience in using the mirror Lock-up function (not a must) and shutter remote control.

Anyhow, good luck. Welcome to Northern Norway, and have some nice days in Lofoten. Don't forget to hire a small boat, travel 1 km offshore and get the experience to fish 50 kg of codfish + + in an hour. (Here you can see the weather forecast for Lofoten; Long term forecast for Svolvær, Vågan (Nordland) ? yr.no If you press Statistics then you'll see that it has been above 20 degrees for the last 2 weeks. But now we're facing the first sign of autumn. That's the most beautiful season in Norway - because of the colours out in the nature! Lofoten is beautiful when you arrive!

Finally; In Lofoten all villages/towns are located maximum 200 meter from the atlantic. Due to that you should, as a carrier of a K30 be aware of the high and low water. Up in Lofoten it is sometimes quite a lot. On this webpage you should fill inn date (from-to) and take a look how it is in Svolvær/Lofoten when your're there. The very last days of September it is almost 4 meter. In optimal weather conditions (on the top of this) it might be MORE than 4 meters and then it is a huge difference to make pictures of the landscape when it is minimum / maximum. Remember my words; The white sand beaches in Lofoten are much more beautiful up there compare to the beaches in southern Spain etc. Go to the beaches when the atlantic is swithced to "Minimum".

Finally; I hope you're not coming the last week of September because then it's fully moon which makes the sky less dark. The 13th it's opposite; The nights are optimal for grabbing the northern light with your K-30.

amber waters · 08-28-2015, 05:46 AM

Originally posted by Pete_XL

I am only turning the screws on the last 2% missing to perfection

Thanks for the kind words...I'm afraid that they're more than 2% away from perfection

Your English is just fine.

A few retrospective observations:

1) The aurora that night was the most impressive I've ever seen as far as intensity and duration. At times it went from horizon to horizon (east to west) directly overhead. I had the DA 15/4 and the FA 31/1.8 limited with me. The DA 15 could not capture the magnitude of what was happening. At that moment I was wishing I had a fish eye of some sort. Also the aurora was dynamic enough to render my attempts at stitching shots with the 31/1.8 useless, which was unfortunate.

2) A faster aperture WA lens would have been awesome. Something like the Rokinon/Samyang 14/2.8 or 16/2 would have afforded a lower ISO and in general more options exposure-wise.

3) I was so excited with what was going on in the sky that I didn't experiment as much as I should have. I saw that my initial settings seemed to look okay and stuck with them. I wish I had dabbled more with some lower ISO shots.

**csa** · 08-28-2015, 07:29 AM

amber waters; I would be most thrilled to get the images you did! That first one is stunning!

Ducky13 · 09-28-2015, 04:45 AM

Hi all, just wanted to say thank you for all the extremely informative replies! I just got back from my trip.

We got a bit unlucky with the weather, but had one clear night where we saw an awesome display. I took about 30 photos using a 30 second exposure, ISO 400 & F 3.5. I will definitely post the best one later after I go through the lot.

My only complaint was the remote control - I had to enable manual focus for the above settings to work (the camera refused to take pictures unless I enabled it), but the remote refused to work with the manual focus enabled. Unfortunately I didn't have the presence of mind to use a 2 second shutter delay in the heat of the moment so I think I might have a bit of vibration, plus it was really windy.

Either way, thank you again for all the help.

08-27-2015, 06:03 AM	#1
Ducky13 Forum Member Join Date: Dec 2012 Posts: 74	Best settings for the Northern Lights Hi All, I am off to the Lofoten islands in Norway next month & am really keen to get some amazing shots of the Northern lights if I am lucky enough to see them. I own a K-30, 18-135mm WR lens with a shutter remote control & a decent tripod. Truth is I am quite a noob & would appreciate it if you could please let me know what the optimal settings are for what I have. I would need to get it right the first time as the Northern lights wont stick around for much time. Thank you in advance for any help! Cheers, Ducky

08-27-2015, 06:36 AM	#2
normhead Pentaxian Join Date: Jun 2007 Location: Near Algonquin Park Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 40,451	Here's what I used for a starting point, someone on the forum recommended it, so credit is due, I just can't remember who it was. I eventually tried some star shots with exposures as long as three minutes to reduce the ISO and get cleaner images using bulb mode. I found 90 seconds and 800 ISO was about it. More than that you start getting star trails. Here's an image of the milky way, with a meteor bottom left. (too faint to see I guess). Last edited by normhead; 08-27-2015 at 06:49 AM.

08-27-2015, 06:42 PM	#6
amber waters Site Supporter Join Date: Aug 2011 Location: MN Posts: 92	I found myself among the northern lights this past June. I used my K5 with the DA15. Took a ton of photos and each one was with the same settings: F/4, ISO 1600, and 30 sec exposure. Here's a few of them: Im very jealous of your trip! Hope you get to see them while you're there. Last edited by amber waters; 08-27-2015 at 06:53 PM. Reason: removed links and imbedded photos

08-28-2015, 02:15 AM	#11
Dabola Forum Member Join Date: Jan 2011 Location: Bergen, Norway Posts: 60	As an inhabitant of northern Norway perhaps I should give you some advices. My first Pentax was a ME - more than 30 years ago. At that time I lived in Svanvik, 200 meter from the Russian border, at the northeastern edge of Norway. Up there it was extremely much northern light during the winter. Now I'm living at Dønna, an island 120 km south of Lofoten. The 2nd picture on this tourist webpage for Northern Norway ("the island of Lovund") is taken from a small mountain 2 km from where I am now. After arrival you will see the same island. Lofoten is located at the 68th and 69th parallels north , and then you're north of 99% of Alaska and Siberia. Still, you should have been one step further north. Don't disunderstand, both Lofoten and Dønna has a lot of northern light but still not as much as in Finnmark, the most northern region of Norway. On the other hand, Lofoten is perfect (better than Finnmark), for the other elements of your motif; mountains, sea, lakes.... I am sure you've already seen a lot of pictures of Lofoten. My main advice is to get out into the nature. Avoid other sources of light and try to get into complete darkness. Be aware that northern lights very often behaves more like clouds during a windy day. Sometimes they are stable but most of the time it's like on a theatre; it's on and off, lights are changing, the volume up... move 5-10 degrees to the right, then a few minutes later it gradually disappear... Then bang, its coming back but then 45 degrees to the left. This can occure for hours or just a few minutes. As you probably already know, optimal time is before sunrise and after sunset. At this norwegian webpage you can see the time of sunrise and sunset for October in Svolvær, the largest "Town" of Lofoten. The 1st of October sunrise is 07:13 and sunset 18:28. (Below you will find link for September). Next column is for length of day, then 3 colums for darkness ("tussmørke"). Astronomic, Natural and Ordinary. Because you're up in polar area the sunrise and -set takes much longer time than down in the middle of Europe. Due to that we have 3 categories of darkness. (Like we have 20 different names of snow). Press the link on the third column for the 1st of October (called (263°) and you will see that the sun is just a few degrees below the horizon at the middle of the night. If you get up at 6 AM in Lofoten the 1st of Oct. then you're most probably too late! If this is the main reason for the journey then I would have brought with me a sleeping bag and a tent. In Norway everybody are free to stay where ever they want - as long as you are out in the nature (outside farmland). Hotels/hostels are located in the small towns. 10-20 minutes biking or/and half an hours walk is a "must" to get to optimal places for using your Pentax to grab the northern lights. Why not then just stay out in the nature? Tip; put an advertisement in the local newspaper "Tourist pays 30 Euro to rent a tent, sleeping bag + + for 10 days in Lofoten" Write the head in Norwegian; "Turist betaler 250 kr for å leie telt, sovepose, underlag + + i 10 dager" and then go on in english. Print an interim email by Google etc. to get in touch with you. This is just a proposal. Perhaps you have already paid for the hotel... Here you will find som pictures taken by a man in Tromsø. An Observatory of Aurora up at Svalbard have a Auroral forecast service by an Android software. Lofoten is within their covered area but I don't know anything about it. Perhaps you could try to download and get some experience. Don't forget that the aurora are extremely local. It is impossible to predict this variation. At the same time the aurora is "switched off" completely for days. This is most probably something that is possible to forecast by the geomagnetic activity. E.g: "Good conditions for Aurora the next 3 days in Lofoten, expesially from 1am until..." University of Tromsø has a webpage with 24 hours plot of Realtime Magnetogram. Try the links at the left for "Dønna" and "Andenes". (Lofoten is in the middle between.) And you can see a graph of the Aurora activity here at Dønna (where I'm living) during the last 24 hours. You will see very much the same graph for "Andenes" - just north of Lofoten. Try to do it for several days and you will most probably see that this pattern goes on for days. E.g. last night the geomagnetic activity peaked just before midnight and approx 5 AM. (Perhaps I should go out and take a look tonight and try to make a picture... Unfortunately, today it's cloudy/rainy). Back to the Pentax. VisitNorway has made a webpage, How to Shoot the Northern Lights I also have the 18-135mm, but I would have prefered to use another lens. Even the standard 18-55 is better in the wide end. A wide angle to grab both the mountains or sea ... and the northern light perhaps 20-30-40 degrees above the horizon. At the same time a prime lens 40-50 mm. Written by DeadJohn yesterday: "30 seconds can be too long if the aurora is rapidly shifting; you'll just get a blur of color rather than a clear view of the aurora "curtain". Reduce exposure time and increase ISO if needed..." I agree. Also about "Blur of color". But i'm afraid it's more in the middle of the winter you can experience a facinating theatre; all the steps from deep green to light red to blue at the same time.... For me 30 seconds sounds much too long. In 1 out of 10-20 occations the northern lighs are rather stable. But most of the time it changes rapidly and then I would have tried to increase the ISO instead. 1600-3200... It also change rapidly over time. Five minutes with intensive flashes then completely swiched off for half an hour. And so on again.. Due to this you will experience that the scenery was better 1 minutes ago. Because of this; Try to get some experience in using the mirror Lock-up function (not a must) and shutter remote control. Anyhow, good luck. Welcome to Northern Norway, and have some nice days in Lofoten. Don't forget to hire a small boat, travel 1 km offshore and get the experience to fish 50 kg of codfish + + in an hour. (Here you can see the weather forecast for Lofoten; Long term forecast for Svolvær, Vågan (Nordland) ? yr.no If you press Statistics then you'll see that it has been above 20 degrees for the last 2 weeks. But now we're facing the first sign of autumn. That's the most beautiful season in Norway - because of the colours out in the nature! Lofoten is beautiful when you arrive! Finally; In Lofoten all villages/towns are located maximum 200 meter from the atlantic. Due to that you should, as a carrier of a K30 be aware of the high and low water. Up in Lofoten it is sometimes quite a lot. On this webpage you should fill inn date (from-to) and take a look how it is in Svolvær/Lofoten when your're there. The very last days of September it is almost 4 meter. In optimal weather conditions (on the top of this) it might be MORE than 4 meters and then it is a huge difference to make pictures of the landscape when it is minimum / maximum. Remember my words; The white sand beaches in Lofoten are much more beautiful up there compare to the beaches in southern Spain etc. Go to the beaches when the atlantic is swithced to "Minimum". Finally; I hope you're not coming the last week of September because then it's fully moon which makes the sky less dark. The 13th it's opposite; The nights are optimal for grabbing the northern light with your K-30. Last edited by Dabola; 09-09-2015 at 01:05 AM.

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08-27-2015, 06:43 AM	#3
veato Veteran Member Join Date: Oct 2011 Location: Nottingham Posts: 543	I've never shot the Northern Lights but as with night/astro photography I'd go with long exposure, wide aperture, up the ISO and of course stabilise the camera on a tripod and fire with a remote. I suppose on your lens I'd start with ISO1600, 18mm, f/3.5, 30 seconds and go from there.

08-27-2015, 07:28 AM	#4
DeadJohn Pentaxian Join Date: Jan 2011 Location: New York Posts: 4,834	Ducky, as for many things, "it depends". Manual mode, 30 seconds, ISO 1600, 18mm, widest aperture possible is a good start. 30 seconds can be too long if the aurora is rapidly shifting; you'll just get a blur of color rather than a clear view of the aurora "curtain". Reduce exposure time and increase ISO if needed. Shoot in DNG+JPG mode. JPG gives you an easy result, raw DNG lets you process it later to bring out faint details. Practice at home. You might have no aurora to photograph and too much light pollution to make a good long exposure, but it will still let you confirm camera settings and get familiar with shooting in the dark. Research "dark frame subtraction" or "long exposure noise reduction". It's a menu setting but I forget the exact wording Pentax uses for it. It takes a photo with the shutter open as usual, then takes an equally long dark image with the shutter closed to subtract noise. Turn it off if you are using the intervalometer or otherwise taking many photos, because you'll waste too much waiting for those dark frames. Maybe keep it off for most of your night shooting, then turn it on for a few photos so you can compare results. If the remote isn't working, no big deal, just turn on the 2-second interval timer to let vibrations settle. 2 seconds is enough with wide angle; 12 seconds wastes time unless you need it for a long lens.

08-27-2015, 07:25 PM	#7
normhead Pentaxian Join Date: Jun 2007 Location: Near Algonquin Park Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 40,451	Lots of good stuff here.

08-27-2015, 10:47 PM	#8
Pete_XL Site Supporter Join Date: Mar 2010 Location: Germany Photos: Gallery Posts: 335	Originally posted by amber waters F/4, ISO 1600, and 30 sec exposure. Here's a few of them . The colours, look and feel of your photos are phantastic - great shots!!! Without intending to dimisch the photographic achievement (hope the wording is allright, I am not a native speaker) I would like to comment that the main challange in shooting the Northern Lights can be seen: The necessity to get enough photons of the dim lights onto the sensor and overcome its sensitivity threshold leads to long exposure times - and often to oval stars or slight trailing. This can only be counteracted by shortening the expoure time - and it gets dark. If the aperture is already wide open the only corrective is to raise ISO-value even more and shorten exposure time (e.g. 15 s instead of 30 s and ISO 3.200 instead of 1.600). One gets more grain but this can normaly be handled later in pp. Or leave the ISO as it is and rely on the on the low-light quality of you camera shooting RAWs. In my experience (with the K-5) the light reserve in the RAW pictures is big enough to risk slightly underexposed originals and regain the polar lights during post processing. Shorter exposure also leads to more details in the structure and colours of the lights. Once more: your pictures are great, much better than anything I ever achieved in this context. I am only turning the screws on the last 2% missing to perfection

08-27-2015, 11:50 PM	#9
hence84 Junior Member Join Date: Sep 2010 Location: Luleå Posts: 33	Just a thought, could you be able to use the multiexposure mode in some good way to shoot Aurora Lights? Maybe the "Bright" setting who only record the Bright part in the Picture if I understand it correctly?

08-28-2015, 12:08 AM	#10
Pete_XL Site Supporter Join Date: Mar 2010 Location: Germany Photos: Gallery Posts: 335	Originally posted by hence84 Just a thought, could you be able to use the multiexposure mode in some good way to shoot Aurora Lights? Maybe the "Bright" setting who only record the Bright part in the Picture if I understand it correctly? You probably would get more trailing because the stars would pierce through in each exposure. Also I would expect more blur in the polar lights.

08-28-2015, 05:46 AM	#12
amber waters Site Supporter Join Date: Aug 2011 Location: MN Posts: 92	Originally posted by Pete_XL I am only turning the screws on the last 2% missing to perfection Thanks for the kind words...I'm afraid that they're more than 2% away from perfection Your English is just fine. A few retrospective observations: 1) The aurora that night was the most impressive I've ever seen as far as intensity and duration. At times it went from horizon to horizon (east to west) directly overhead. I had the DA 15/4 and the FA 31/1.8 limited with me. The DA 15 could not capture the magnitude of what was happening. At that moment I was wishing I had a fish eye of some sort. Also the aurora was dynamic enough to render my attempts at stitching shots with the 31/1.8 useless, which was unfortunate. 2) A faster aperture WA lens would have been awesome. Something like the Rokinon/Samyang 14/2.8 or 16/2 would have afforded a lower ISO and in general more options exposure-wise. 3) I was so excited with what was going on in the sky that I didn't experiment as much as I should have. I saw that my initial settings seemed to look okay and stuck with them. I wish I had dabbled more with some lower ISO shots.

08-28-2015, 07:29 AM	#13
csa Loyal Site Supporter Join Date: Aug 2014 Location: Montana mountains Posts: 10,133	amber waters; I would be most thrilled to get the images you did! That first one is stunning!

09-28-2015, 04:45 AM	#14
Ducky13 Forum Member Join Date: Dec 2012 Posts: 74 Original Poster	Hi all, just wanted to say thank you for all the extremely informative replies! I just got back from my trip. We got a bit unlucky with the weather, but had one clear night where we saw an awesome display. I took about 30 photos using a 30 second exposure, ISO 400 & F 3.5. I will definitely post the best one later after I go through the lot. My only complaint was the remote control - I had to enable manual focus for the above settings to work (the camera refused to take pictures unless I enabled it), but the remote refused to work with the manual focus enabled. Unfortunately I didn't have the presence of mind to use a 2 second shutter delay in the heat of the moment so I think I might have a bit of vibration, plus it was really windy. Either way, thank you again for all the help.