Fairbanks and auroras

Working on learning how to best capture the Auroras. Any advise is

welcome.

Now i'm no expert on Aurora photography but from what I can see you are doing a pretty good job so far. However, you might try an exposure thats just a few seconds longer. If youre pretty interested in astrophotography there is an awesome book called "Astrophotography for the Amateur," by Michael A. Covington. It contains valuable information about how to photograph the moon, planets, galaxies, nebulae, meteors and Auroras and exposure recommendations for different f-stops. It's recommendations for Auroras are simply to "make several exposures ranging from 2 to 60 seconds with the lens wide open, (but no wider than f/1.7) at ISO 200 or higher." I hope that helps out a little and good luck on your furture endeavors.

Randy,

Check out the website of your fellow Fairbanks-ian, Patrick Endres at Alaskaphotographics.com. He's taught me a lot about aurora photography. Also check out the Unversity of Alaska Fairbanks Aurora forecast site. Looks like you're off to a good start.

Good start Randy.

 

My first reccomendation to you would be to use film for aurora photography, and leave the digital for daylight and warm-weather work. Get a simple, all mechanical SLR and a few fast prime lenses (24mm, 35mm and 50mm)... no zooms. You want fast lenses, not so you can shoot wide open, but so that you can stop down one or two stops to eliminate aberrations, and still have a fast lens. Use 200 or 400 ISO films, and expose as long as possible, while still keeping the stars looking like "points" rather than "trails". Another good book is "Wide-Field Astrophotography" by Robert Reeves. And e-mail me sometime, and we can go into more detail.

 

Mike K.

All I can say is wow. This is one of my ambitions in life (capture what u have here)

 

Ger..