Aurora at last…
Discussion
Like many thousands/ millions of people, I finally got to see and photograph the aurora last night. One of my bucket-list shots.
Bit of a steep learning curve with camera settings and also a long way to go to find somewhere really dark (I’m in Staffordshire and drove out to North Wales - turns out I needn’t have bothered, as the aurora was visible almost anywhere with no cloud).
Bit annoyed that my camera just wouldn’t work with my Samyang 14mm f2.8 lens, so I fell back on a trusty 16-35 f4 and set the exposure to 20 seconds. Also tried a 50mm f1.4, but the shots just weren’t wide enough.
Anyway - one of my shots
DSC_5634 by Nigel Ogram, on Flickr
Did anyone else get anything?
Bit of a steep learning curve with camera settings and also a long way to go to find somewhere really dark (I’m in Staffordshire and drove out to North Wales - turns out I needn’t have bothered, as the aurora was visible almost anywhere with no cloud).
Bit annoyed that my camera just wouldn’t work with my Samyang 14mm f2.8 lens, so I fell back on a trusty 16-35 f4 and set the exposure to 20 seconds. Also tried a 50mm f1.4, but the shots just weren’t wide enough.
Anyway - one of my shots
DSC_5634 by Nigel Ogram, on FlickrDid anyone else get anything?
Edited by Nigel_O on Saturday 11th May 20:54
It was barely visible to the naked eye here in the South of England with terrible light pollution, so I was surprised at the amount of colour in a 3s exposure, handheld, leaning against a wall.
Nikon D610
Tokina 16-28 f2.8
3s @ f4.5, iso 1600
Nikon D610
Tokina 16-28 f2.8
3s @ f4.5, iso 1600
Edited by thegreenhell on Saturday 11th May 21:57
Dead chuffed with mine, taken on Redmire Moor and also on the Catterick Ranges.
Aurora-Redmire Moor-10-5-24 by Ian Mitchell, on Flickr
Aurora-Catterick Ranges-11-5-24-3 by Ian Mitchell, on Flickr
Aurora-Catterick Ranges-11-5-24-2 by Ian Mitchell, on Flickr
Aurora-Catterick Ranges-11-5-24 by Ian Mitchell, on Flickr
Aurora-Redmire Moor-10-5-24 by Ian Mitchell, on FlickrAurora-Catterick Ranges-11-5-24-3 by Ian Mitchell, on FlickrAurora-Catterick Ranges-11-5-24-2 by Ian Mitchell, on FlickrAurora-Catterick Ranges-11-5-24 by Ian Mitchell, on FlickrOne of the glimmers through the cloud, what could have been...
Sadly clouded aurora by Ben, on Flickr
Sadly clouded aurora by Ben, on FlickrNigel_O said:
Like many thousands/ millions of people, I finally got to see and photograph the aurora last night. One of my bucket-list shots.
Bit of a steep learning curve with camera settings and also a long way to go to find somewhere really dark (I’m in Staffordshire and drove out to North Wales - turns out I needn’t have bothered, as the aurora was visible almost anywhere with no cloud).
Bit annoyed that my camera just wouldn’t work with my Samyang 14mm f2.8 lens, so I fell back on a trusty 16-35 f4 and set the exposure to 20 seconds. Also tried a 50mm f1.4, but the shots just weren’t wide enough.
Anyway - one of my shots
DSC_5634 by Nigel Ogram, on Flickr
Did anyone else get anything?
Camera settings for Aurora… try starting at iso 3200 and moving higher if need be. I was shooting one second exposures during the storm on Friday night, Saturday morning. ISO 6400, 16mm at f/2.8 was where I ended up. I was going for quantity that night and ended up with over 2000 images to play with for a Timelapse. Bit of a steep learning curve with camera settings and also a long way to go to find somewhere really dark (I’m in Staffordshire and drove out to North Wales - turns out I needn’t have bothered, as the aurora was visible almost anywhere with no cloud).
Bit annoyed that my camera just wouldn’t work with my Samyang 14mm f2.8 lens, so I fell back on a trusty 16-35 f4 and set the exposure to 20 seconds. Also tried a 50mm f1.4, but the shots just weren’t wide enough.
Anyway - one of my shots
DSC_5634 by Nigel Ogram, on FlickrDid anyone else get anything?
Edited by Nigel_O on Saturday 11th May 20:54
leggly said:
Nigel_O said:
Like many thousands/ millions of people, I finally got to see and photograph the aurora last night. One of my bucket-list shots.
Bit of a steep learning curve with camera settings and also a long way to go to find somewhere really dark (I’m in Staffordshire and drove out to North Wales - turns out I needn’t have bothered, as the aurora was visible almost anywhere with no cloud).
Bit annoyed that my camera just wouldn’t work with my Samyang 14mm f2.8 lens, so I fell back on a trusty 16-35 f4 and set the exposure to 20 seconds. Also tried a 50mm f1.4, but the shots just weren’t wide enough.
Anyway - one of my shots
DSC_5634 by Nigel Ogram, on Flickr
Did anyone else get anything?
Camera settings for Aurora… try starting at iso 3200 and moving higher if need be. I was shooting one second exposures during the storm on Friday night, Saturday morning. ISO 6400, 16mm at f/2.8 was where I ended up. I was going for quantity that night and ended up with over 2000 images to play with for a Timelapse. Bit of a steep learning curve with camera settings and also a long way to go to find somewhere really dark (I’m in Staffordshire and drove out to North Wales - turns out I needn’t have bothered, as the aurora was visible almost anywhere with no cloud).
Bit annoyed that my camera just wouldn’t work with my Samyang 14mm f2.8 lens, so I fell back on a trusty 16-35 f4 and set the exposure to 20 seconds. Also tried a 50mm f1.4, but the shots just weren’t wide enough.
Anyway - one of my shots
DSC_5634 by Nigel Ogram, on FlickrDid anyone else get anything?
Edited by Nigel_O on Saturday 11th May 20:54
I hoped switching bodies, from a 550D, to a 7D iI might help, but it hasn’t.
10/5/24 at about 11pm on a Devon back road near Exeter.
Nikon D850 with 14 - 24mm F 2.8 30 sec exposure ISO 64.
I got a fair few on Flickr, luckily I popped out at 10pm to see if I could see anything, first shot I took was a very faint green colour in the sky, then it all went pretty mad, blessed really to catch it.
velocemitch said:
Nigel, why didn’t the Samyang work? Just wondering if it’s a focusing issue?
I suspect operator error...When I mounted the lens, I couldn't set the aperture at anything below 5. It just showed an error code and refused to take the shot. Annoyingly, the next day, I tried again and it worked fine....
Focusing on the Samyang is always a faff when pointing at a night sky. I have to use live view and then zoom right in, but the live view is always blurry until I put my glasses on
I normally don't use glasses for photography, as my diopter can copeI got these - drove 30 minutes to the Hurkling Stones on the moors near home with my son. We will never forget it - clearly visible to the eye, with all the colours. "magical" sounds corny, but...it was magical.
Fuji X-T5, Samyang 12mm. c.iso 2000, c.2 second exposure, c.f2.
I was changing settings around these values in the hope of lucking into a few good shots. Uploading them to PH seems to have destroyed the quality a bit, but there we go.
Sharpened & de-noised in Lightroom, but the saturation was left alone.
Fuji X-T5, Samyang 12mm. c.iso 2000, c.2 second exposure, c.f2.
I was changing settings around these values in the hope of lucking into a few good shots. Uploading them to PH seems to have destroyed the quality a bit, but there we go.
Sharpened & de-noised in Lightroom, but the saturation was left alone.
Riley Blue said:
Composer62 said:
Of the dozens of Aurora photos I've looked at in the past few weeks that is one of the best, easily in the top three.Riley Blue said:
Composer62 said:
Of the dozens of Aurora photos I've looked at in the past few weeks that is one of the best, easily in the top three.
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