p.1 #1 · Aurora Borealis roaring out deep solar minimum!
It's been a few years since I have seen a really good aurora show. Looked out the window on Friday night and was surprised to see beautiful aurora dancing away. Was able to get out and grab some shots of the quickly changing aurora. It was very intense and that can be seen from the red at the bottom. The deep solar minimum hasn't been good for my photography but it came roaring back to life on Friday! Next couple days look good too if the clouds stay away.
Photos really don't do justice to fast moving aurora like this. For those who haven't seen them, they flicker like waves across the sky moving thousands of miles in seconds. The sky really does come to life and looking back at my photo roll, it is very hard to tell photos were only 4 seconds apart because each photo looks so different.
2 second shutter speed or less on most of these to reduce blurring on the aurora tendrils (what I call them).
p.1 #2 · Aurora Borealis roaring out deep solar minimum!
Wonderful shot and location
I have never seen them in person and only photographs, so I have no knowledge on how to photograph them. I wonder if a quick shutter and trying to bring back some shadows in post just a bit to help with blur would look... um cleaner? I really don't know, if it would make this shot better. I really do like them with the calm reflection. Just typing out loud here.
p.1 #3 · Aurora Borealis roaring out deep solar minimum!
007Boarder wrote:
Wonderful shot and location
I have never seen them in person and only photographs, so I have no knowledge on how to photograph them. I wonder if a quick shutter and trying to bring back some shadows in post just a bit to help with blur would look... um cleaner? I really don't know, if it would make this shot better. I really do like them with the calm reflection. Just typing out loud here.
The first one was shot at ISO 3200 & had a 2 second shutter @ F2.0. I usually shoot aurora with my F2.8 14-24mm at always shot slower shutters at ISO 800, 6-10 second shutter @ F2.8. I definitely got much less blurring with the new faster lens and increased ISO. I did push it a bit more to F1.4 ISO 1600 & 0.5 second shutter later in the night when the aurora died down the the blurring was even less. Posted a photo to show the more defined aurora.
Always experimenting and welcome the conversation on the technical aspect & processing!
p.1 #5 · Aurora Borealis roaring out deep solar minimum!
Wonderful aurora photos. Going to the short shutter speeds is a great idea.
My only lens faster than 2.8 is a Siggy 20/1.4. Living in MT we seldom, if ever in my experience, get aurora directly over our heads so maybe ultra fast lenses will not help so much. Must admit if there ever is a RF 35/1.2 my credit card may be abused once again.
Your photos do make me think a road trip north is in order if we ever get to more frequent aurora light shows.
Again, great work, inspirational work.
Sep 28, 2020 at 11:42 AM
brian_sp Offline • • • • [X]
p.1 #6 · Aurora Borealis roaring out deep solar minimum!
Excellent Corey!
been a while since i have seen them, good or bad show...and now to see what i missed because i had the cloudy skies friday night
looks like another storm brewing according to spaceweather, and yet another cloudy night here
p.1 #12 · Aurora Borealis roaring out deep solar minimum!
Incredibly beautiful photos! Thanks for all your tips and info on shooting the aurora. I have only been lucky enough to see them on a couple of occasions 5 years ago in MN. Would love to shoot them again. YGMV!
p.1 #15 · Aurora Borealis roaring out deep solar minimum!
Thanks everyone for the comments! Another photographer up here took a video from earlier in the night. Gives you an idea how what they look like with a live video....
