Ciao a tutti. Aurora Boreale. Tutti la conosciamo. Ma come fotografarla? Questo il dubbio che mi assillava nei mesi passati. Dal sito www.spaceweather.com sono riuscito ad entrare in contatto con diversi fotografi nordici. Questa la mia mail:
Good morning.
I have found you here:
http://spaceweather.com/aurora/gallery_01sep05_page5.htm.
We are an italian family from Venezia. Next Christmas holiday we will go in Finland with our motorhome and we wold like to see the Aurora. We don't ave photo-experience with the aurora. Could you suggest us the best olutions or position or something else about the photo? We have a Nikon D70 with zoom 18-200 and a Canon Powershot SX100IS.
Could you help us, please?
Every informations is well accepted.
Thank you very much.
...se con la preparazione del camper ho pubblicato una sintesi in italiano, qui lascio studiare anche voi [:D][:D][:D]...copio ed incollo diverse mail di risposta.
Hi
Look at this:
http://www.my-photo-blog.com/how-to-photograph-the-aurora-borealis-northern-lights
I hope you get to see the aurora up there, I know there is not much
solar activity now, but hopefully you are lucky and see them :)
Basically I do like this:
Set lense to manual focus and focus on infinity.
Use a tripod and preferably a remote trigger or a cable release.
Iso 400 or 800
exposure time of 20 sec. (try also 10 and 30 secounds)
aurora pictures in my mind is best if you have a little of the ground
showing on the picture, not only sky.
Best of luck :)
Ronny
Hello,
you are welcome to Norway, and it is a good idea to visit Loften in
the winter. Most people come to Lofoten in the summer, and of course
it can be beautiful, but the light in the winter can be fantastic.
Have a look at some photos from Lofoten in the winter on my website:
www.arcticphoto.no
Click the link "Lofoten vinter"
It is possible to see the Aurora both in Lapland and Lofoten, but you
need of course nice weather with no clouds.
To take photos of the Aurora, you need first of all patience. The
aurora can appear suddenly, and disappear after a few minutes. And
you never know when it appears.
The Nikon D70 is fine for aurora photos, far better than the Canon
powershot.
You need a sturdy tripod for the camera, and a cable release. The
18-200mm might be useful, but preferrably you should have a wide
angle lens with faster aperture (f/2,8 or better). Maybe the new
Tokina 11-16mm/2,8. I have not tried it, but it is supposed to give
good quality. The point in taking good photos of the northern lights
is to have as short shutter speed as possible. That way you can
freeze the movement of the auroras. And to achieve a short shutter
speed you need a fast aperture and/or high ISO settings.
You need to set the camera on manual, and focus manually. Try with an
ISO-setting on 400 or 800. Use the widest angle, and the fastest aperture on the lens.
First try with a shutter speed of 10-15 seconds, then increase to a
maximum of 25-30 seconds. Check on the camera's monitor how the
photos look. I do not recommend more than 30 seconds -
it will result in star trails because of the earth's rotation.
And an important notice: In the camera's menu there is a setting
named "Long Exposure Noise Reduction". Turn this setting ON.
And use the camera's RAW (NEF) format, not JPG. It is much easier to
adjust the photos if you take them in RAW.
Also remember that long exposures drain the battery quickly, so take
a spare battery or two.
It takes a lot of practice, and a lot of patience, to take good
photos of the aurora!
Good luck, and I hope you get a memorable visit to Norway!
- - - - - - - - -
Best regards,
Bjorn Jorgensen
mailto:post@arcticphoto.no
- - - - - - - - -
Hello.
Thank you for your interest. I'm not really too much of an expert although I take a lot of photos. My best tip for auroras are long expose (30+ seconds, tripod and a nice foreground. Pictures of just auroras tend to be boring. But get a mountain or a tree in the foreground, both of which are plenty in Lofoten, and the picture becomes a lot better. I also like to use low ISO setting as it is very easy to see noise on a black sky.
Another good trick is to shoot straight up. You won't get anything in the foreground unless you're near a tower, but if the auroras are straight up they tend to form a very nice "crown" around the zenith.
Other than that, just try alot of different angles and setups, and one of the pictures should be good. Best tip is probably to dress warm!
I hope you have a wonderfull christmas holliday, with good weather and lots of northern lights, even though it's solar minimum. The Lofoten islands are very nice anyways, although its dark all day during Christmas
Good morning Massimiliano!
First of all, I have an aurora website, www.auroraphotos.net --- please visit!
Most important things in planning a trip to photograph auroras:
- go to Finnish Lapland, for example to Kilpisjärvi. http://www.kilpisjarvi.org/index_en.htm
It is a long drive, but really worth it! There is a place where you can get electricity to your motorhome, etc.
I have been to Kilpisjärvi many times and seen very fine auroras there.
- stay in Kilpisjärvi as many nights as possible. Weather may be cloudy sometimes, so you can't see auroras every night
- prepare for cold weather, because you may need to spend many hours out in the cold. Warm clothing, warm boots, mittens, warm hat, hot tea/coffee in a thermos bottle, etc.
- take extra batteries for your cameras, and keep the battery in the warm (inside pocket, close to your body) when you are not taking picturs
- you need a good tripod, headlamp, etc., snow shoes are very convenient
- aurora photo exposure:
focus: manually to infinity
white balance: daylight setting
aperture: wide open
sensitivity: 400 -- 800 ASA
shutter speed: 2-6 seconds for bright auroras, 6-15 sec for normal brightness auroras, 15-30 sec for weak auroras
Take many pictures and bracket exposures!
Important safety issues, take very seriously:
- dress warmly
- always have lots of gas in your car
- roads are sometimes very icy and slippery
- there will be very little daylight, so you will do most of your driving in darkness
- distances are long, so don't try to drive too long in one day (and fall asleep while driving)
- always have cell phone with you, and keep it in warm (pocket)
- emergency phone number in Finland is 112, store it in your phone
- have a GPS in car at least, so if you need to call for help, you can tell where you are
- don't go far from the roads by yourself (and get lost)
* Good luck and enjoy!
Best regards,
Juha
One more thing:
when taking pictures of aurora, always go to a dark place, away from light pollution sources like street lights, houses, etc.
Br,
Juha
Hi!
First of all, I am no professional photographer. So what I am telling
you is just how I managed to take the photos you have probably seen.
(In case not, here are some more:
http://norwegen.kaifler.net/bilder/nordlichter_uebersicht.shtml )
The aurora is very faint object and therefore long exposure times are
needed in order to photograph it. Usually 3 to 8 seconds are necessary
with ISO 400. So be sure to take a tripod with you.
I always put the camera into manual mode with focus set to infinity. A
wide-angle lens is an advantage, if you have one. Otherwise set the
zoom level to around around 40 mm. Zooming to extreme wide-angel is
not advisable, though.
The aurora is usually following the magnetic field lines of the earth
in a bright arc across the sky. I often looks like it starts from a
spot in the direction of the magnetic north pole. The magnetic north
pole is slightly shifted compared to the geographic north pole, but as
long as you are looking somewhere in north direction, you will not
miss the aurora.
At night it is almost impossible to use the view-finder of the camera.
So I start with taking a picture and looking at the preview of the
image at the display afterwards. If the image shows not the desired
part, change the orientation of the camera slightly in the preferred
direction and take another image. Repeat this until you have the most
intense part of the aurora centered on the image.
Once the first images are taken, I usually would adjust the exposure
time a bit and try again. Naturally the aurora will get brighter the
longer the exposure time. But on the other hand, depending on the
viewing conditions, the black sky gets brighter, too, or even
yellowish. I prefer to have still black sky next to the aurora, so I
will not use too long exposure times. But you need to experiment with
the exposure settings as they differ from camera to camera.
Usually the intensity of the aurora is pulsating. So it is not
uncommon to observe strong aurora for about 10 minutes. Then it will
get fainter for lets say half an hour before the intensity will
increase again. In either case you need to be patient ;). The best
advise I can give you is to go somewhere where it is really dark. Then
set up the camera on the tripod and wait (hot tea can be really
good!). When the aurora appears, press the release a few times. Be
sure to look at the sky in between. Although it is nice to have good
photos, nothing is more impressive as seeing the aurora with your own
eyes.
Some words about the appearance of the aurora. Auroras are caused by
high energetic particles entering the atmosphere of the earth. The
particles are originating from the sun, and of course, the more
particles are coming, the brighter the aurora. But the activity of the
sun is not constant. It usually follows an eleven year cycle. Last
year was a minimum activity year. So the probability for observing an
intense aurora is quite low for the next few years to come.
Nevertheless there are sometimes huge outbursts on the sun even in
these calm years. These outbursts cause really strong auroras which
are observable for a few days and then disappear again. On December 6,
2006, happened to be such a huge outburst. But you can not count on
such events. So it is perfectly possible that you will see no bright
aurora at all for lets say four weeks. Fainter aurora are usually seen
at least once every week, though. Of course I do not want to
discourage you, so please do not get me wrong. But you need always a
bit of luck to observer a bright aurora. Although I have lived for a
whole year in northern Norway, I have seen only few really bright
auroras.
This link http://geo.phys.uit.no/knum/ shows some graphs of the
magnetic activity. If the values are above 5, then the probability for
auroras is high. The graph denoted with "Tromso" is the most
interesting one since the "Tromso" station is closest to Lappland and
the Lofoten.
Do not hesitate to ask if you have more questions. I will try to answer :-).
All the best and good luck,
Bernd
(currently living in Hamburg, Germany, but planning to move to Norway
for the winter :-))
Hello,
The Nikon D70 and 18-200 lens will be fine for taking pictures of auroras with. You have to have the camera put in M mode ( the round selector on M )
and then set the exposure time to something between 10 to 30 seconds. The auroras are mostly so bright you can easily see them through the camera finder.
I have not had time to travel much here, but a popular place is this hotel, http://www.kakslauttanen.fi/
It is pretty far up north in Finland, but the auroras can be a lot better there too.
Best wishes
Jonas
________________________________________________________________________________Hi Massimiliano,
Hmmm....getting aurora shots is not that difficult at all, especially
if the lights really are out and they are bright. If they are not out,
then nothing helps. Generally if the lights are out, one needs only
few things.
1. tripod (must)
2. camera with relatively fast lens, like f/2.8. Faster the better.
3. focus to infinity
4. long enough exposure times.
Does the 18-200 lens has f/3.5? If so, it is not really optimal for
good aurora shots, but with bright lights and high enough ISO setting,
one could for sure get some photos. I think you can see a lot of
photos in spaceweather.com, which have been taken with lenses slower
then f/2.8. Not sure what is your knowledge about photography, but 1
f/stop always doubles the exposure time. So, if you have camera set to
ISO 400, have f/2.0 lens and use 8 seconds exposure time, to get
"similarly" exposed shot with f/2.8 lens, you would need to increase
to exposure time to 16 seconds and with f/3.5 to over 30 seconds. Then
again...if you increase the ISO from 400 to 800, it is again half
faster and you could shorten the time by half. Of course the picture
quality would drop too...
Personally i try to keep exposure time as short as possible and
usually try to keep them below 15 seconds and never above 30 sec. Also
stars start to draw "lines" with around 20mm lens (in digital slrs
with DX size chip), if the times go past 13-15 sec. Yet, one has to
always try it out with which times one gets decent results. Brightness
and sky coverage of the lights vary and that sets the reguirements how
one should picture them....
All in all, IF you would get lucky and get example decent auroral
storm at that time, then f/3.5 would certainly be enough to get
pictures of aurora to the family album, even if they would not be
highest possible quality. Reason for fast lenses is pretty the fact
the good lights can move REALLY FAST and long exposure times would
make them blurry in the pictures.
Equally you should be able to get some pictures with that small Canon,
if you can or manage to focus it to infinity and if the lights are
out.
Where in Finland are you going? If you are staying in the south, your
chances would be pretty slim at least. Especially on these days when
the solar activity is still very very low. In Finland those true
aurora latitudes or aurora land is there in the far north....Somewhere
above the latitude of Sodankylä in the 'Lapland. Those are high enough
to get to see decent lights even if there is no true auroral storms!.
While here int he south we get decent lights only when the geomagnetic
activity is pretty high. In the south one can often see some faint
glow or low arc low in the horizon one bit more active nights, but
they are really non-events and for good viewing we need geomagnetic
storms. Which have been more than rare lately during past couple of
years. It should get better sometime in near future, but the activity
of new cycle has not yet really materialized.
Anyway, if you drive to lapland and would get lucky to have some
activity, i think it would not be all that hard to find some decent
dark viewing spot from side of the road or from some side road. Sure
there are houses and peoples, but there is very very very much dark
places with no peoples anywhere near by. Light polution should not be
all that big problem. Just get decent maps and drive carefully. I have
not personally been much in lapland, but below Inari on the east the
place is pretty forested, but still quite easy to find decent viewing
spots and above inari it starts to get rather bare...trees become real
tiny. Yet, at that time of the year it could get "quite" cold...so one
better bring a LOT of clothes or money for night place and make sure
the cars liquids don't freeze. Yet, past couple of years have been
real mild also in the north. Here in the south we had basically no
winter at all last winter, just mind numbing dark rainy endless gloom.
In the north it should be better...sun may not rise at all, but at
least it should more clear and brisk and the gloom of the should be
only like a bad dream.
Oh yes, around christmas time the big ski places and else may be quite
packed with peoples....
SGO...well, they are scientific ...thing, not sure do they take much
visitors...No idea.
Is that THE Venice? One of the true original italian marvels to the
world...If so, must be quite an treat to live in such an extraordinary
place. Millions would probably want to try to live in such place even
for short time for once in their life!
BTW. As an cycling fan, i really wish that some day in the future i
would again see the rise of new italian cycling star who could be like
Pantani, but without the drama and that awful tragedy. Someone who
would have courage to attack and attack and attack when ever he feels
like it and who could gracefully dance up the mountains giving his
every last drop of energy to make every victory an epic triumph of
passion and determination. :-D 99% of the riders are like sheeps, who
can only follow others and have no courage to do anything on their own
and have no courage to give it their all, when they decide to go....I
think if one can't win with style, then it is a hollow victory...
Long live the Giro, Giro is by far the best or at least most
entertaining grand tour. Especially the italian climbs are by far the
most impressive and beautiful. :-D
Ok, not sure did i give any decent answers, but....it's a start.
Br,
Tom E.
_______________________________________________________________________________________Hello!
Thanks you for your mail.
Sorry for a little late answer.
My tip about photographing Aurora Borealis is a short focallenght, like 10-20mm, low f/ratio, like f/2.8 to f/4 and a high iso-setting from 400 - 1600 depending how strong the display is.
The exposure shall not be longer than 30s if you don´t want any startrials, I do not like startrails in Aurora photos.
Always photograph using a tripod and a cable release and use manual settings in the camera not auto.
So if it´s a strong and large display:
10-20mm, 10-20s expo, iso 400 - 800, f/2.8
Not so strong and a large display:
10-20mm, 30s expo, iso 800 - 1600, f/2.8
If you wonder about anything else you are welcome to contact me again.
Regards
P-M Hedén
www.clearskies.se
Hi again,
Sorry for getting back to you this late, during the weeks i started new job (kind of ) and so on....Been kind of bit busy lately.
Yes, you can train with the stars and the moon, it gives you experience how to photograph in the dark and which kind of choices you should make then. Yet during auroral substorms the sky isn't all that dark and you must cut down the exposure times from "blank starry night sky photos" by a lot. But if you know how to do that and are ok with darkness and fooling around with headtorch or flashlight, you know how to do things that matter.
Also one should remember that picture, which looked great on camera's LCD, may look overly dark and featureless when downloaded to the computer. So, one must try to estimate how light or dark pictures one is trying to make....Over or underexposing enough for wanted outcome is often must....
Thank you very for the photos! You have probably experiences and saw quite a few great uphill battles of the pro peloton! Something i can only imagine what it is like to watch a bike race. Yes, i have never been in a bike, not even in a small one. Cycling really is just a marginal sport here. You know, here the main sports are ice hockey, ski jumping, ski stuff and motorsport. Maybe some day in the future we will finally get into a big tournament in football too. Something which is mandatory in your country, Azurri or azzurri or how they called, the blue warriors of the football fields. ;-D although, i have to say, that presonally i am not a fan of italian national football team. I wish they would play attacking football, they would surely make art of it....and some individuals surely have..like the "Emperor of Rome"...:-D
Yes, Veikkanen rode very very well in the Giro and he seems to be in one of your photos too. That Finnish champion jersey in the middle of the 0040.jpg! He rode pretty last year too and was in the escape group when the got to the foot of the mighty Zoncolan.
Stage with Colle dell'Agnello may have been boring, but i think the climb itself was really scenic...I remember thinking that there i would like to ride. :-)
Those Unesco destinations are soo widely dispersed through out the country that you really have to make quite a long trip...could be bit stressfull at that time of the year. Riding in the dark or very dark, if it is wet. You have to be careful! Do you have a big camper van or are you just a really harmonic and non fighting family? ;-D
I thought about other destinations and...maybe i have think still bit more. It really is a bit difficult time to think about such destinations. So many place is closed and really...it is dark so much of the time. But maybe it is all in the mind, maybe someone could find some more destinations, if the mind is open. I still have to think about it.
Ok, i think this was all this time. Have a great weekend! :-)
Br,
Tom E.
Ora il problema sarà avere la fortuna di incappare nell'aurora boreale... .
Massimiliano
Massimiliano
qui di più .. tromso
prese da
http://www.lofotposten.no/static/local/webcam/imageRE.jpg
http://195.18.181.53/-wvhttp-01-/GetStillImage
http://www.webcamsinnorway.com/ 
purtroppo il 26 marzo saremo assenti... [:D][:D][:D]
Massimiliano
...mi capita molto spesso di pensare al viaggio, almeno 2-3 volte al dì in quest'ultimo anno, sia alla domenica durante le uscite quando parlo con gli sci [:0][:0][:0] e gli chiedo delle nevi norvegesi, sia durante la settimana al lavoro [:D][:D][:D]
Massimiliano 
Per chi fosse interessato abbiamo un file PDF di 6 pagine (in italiano) molto esaustivo sul problema.
Costruzione...
Montaggio...
Girl nel paddock...
Massimiliano 
...a proposito di neve, questa l'ho appena scattata.
Intanto un pò di sano campanilismo: quello inquadrato è il campanile del mio paese, Azzano Decimo.
Ho inquadrato il col Ceschet, vicino a Piancavallo. Qui la neve inizia da quota 650-700 m. Nota la fascia nera sotto la linea rossa. E' un'enorme valanga caduta venerdì pomeriggio. E' la prima volta che noto un fenomeno di tale portata [:0][:0][:0].
Buona domenica a tutti.
Massimiliano 
