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Need Help with Aurora Photography


Guest lsed

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Hey Guys,

 

I'm currently in Tromso. I have a Nikon D300 I borrowed from my brother and using a Sigma 17 - 25mm  with fixed F2.8 lens

and I was shooting the Aurora today 29 Jan (7pm - midnight) at Finnvikvannet.

Unfortunately, my camera barely caught anything even when I maxed everything up to 3200 ISO and 30 sec shutter.

 

Is there any some setting I am doing wrong?

I initially had a UV filter on that I removed but after which the aurora was still barely visible on my shots. I spoke to some other photographers their and their settings were much lower than mine using also F2.8 lenses - but their shots were much much brighter and more vivid.

 

It's the only lens I have and it's very vexing after flying here from halfway around the world!

 

Thanks very much for any advise!

 

 

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Ok I figured out the problem - the Aperture was not set to 2.8 and was being controlled by the camera. Should have set it to Manual! * face palm *

 

Hoping the conditions will be good tomorrow!

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Thanks very much! Sadly there was no much last night and tonight is my last here.

 

Seems Feb 2nd may have a kp5. Don't think I'll see that in Oslo but hope you guys get a nice display! Some of the pictures here are simply incredible!

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It's a pity Ised that you did not manage to capture the aurora. Nevertheless, you have seen it with your own eyes, and I hope that despite the photo "accident" it will remain in your memory an unforgettable night for you! 29 January was a great night, wasn't it?

 

Your unfortunate experience brings me back to the same advice that I give to everyone: 8pm in the cold Arctic, in the dark and the excitement of the aurora is never the good moment to get acquainted with your photo equipment!

 

You should always quietly try at home before leaving (even if it's not cold), just take photos of the stars or any nighttime landscape, to become familiar with the settings and check out how the camera/lens work together.

 

It makes me sad every time that I hear or read stories like yours (and I do hear them more than often!)

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Hi all,

I use this topic for a question about photo too !

When I took mine, I forgot to remove the HV filter. Do you think this filter can be the origin of the concentric circles I have on my pictures like this one ? I can see them on all of pictures with aurora but nothings on stars and nothing on day pictures.

Thanks for your feedback.

 

Regards

Sam

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It is 100% the reason of the circles :( Very hard to post-process as well :( No filters for aurora photos!!!

 

Chuck Deehr from the University of Alaska explains it as follows: "These are interference fringes due to the parallel faces of the filter and to the narrow spectral emission at 5577 Angstroms in the aurora. That green, atomic oxygen emission line is the strongest emission in the aurora near our film and eye peak sensitivity, so it shows up first when there is any device in the optical path which sorts out the spectral emissions."

 

Don't use filters!

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Thanks a lot "kins",

then I have to go back to the northen countries in order to take new pictures without filter. It's a good reason to see again this fantastic phenomena.

Have a nice week end under the stars... (so cloudy in France for many weeks :( )

 

Regards

Sam

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