Northern Lights Photography Settings with any DSLR or Mirrorless Camera!

[@GlennMartinPhotography]

Do you have any hot tips for photographing an aurora? Let me know in the comments!

[@BearhawkStudio]

Excellent info and well presented. Thanks Glenn!

[@GlennMartinPhotography]

Thanks, mate, I appreciate the feedback :)

[@FortressFineWoodworks]

This was a very helpful video! It's amazing how you can manipulate a camera to detect light that we don't see with our eyes!

[@GlennMartinPhotography]

Yeah, weak auroras can be picked up by cameras but we can't see them. And because of the cones and rods in our eyes, even a moderatly powerful one may only appear white to us as our nightvision doesn't see colour. Not too many get to experience the full colour of an aurora to their own eyeballs, but we're definitly in a cycle that if you're in the right place prepare to be amazed!

[@squareandlevel]

This juice was definitely worth the squeeze! Thanks for the great info Glenn. You've convinced me to get out on a moonless night and give this a go. Hope you have a great day sir!

[@GlennMartinPhotography]

Thanks so much for the feedback. We're certainly in a time that auroras are more accessible!

[@TheNewJankyWorkshop]

Yo dude, great video, and timely! I'll be headed to Norway early next year to see the aurora, so I recently picked up some new lenses and tripod for said trip. You're gonna get a few repeat views from me so I can take proper notes next time.

[@GlennMartinPhotography]

Very envious because Norway is on the bucket list! You're going to have such a good chance at jagging an auora next year in particular!

[@TheNewJankyWorkshop]

@@GlennMartinPhotography It's been on mine as well for a long time, especially after spotting the aurora on vacation this summer a couple hours north of where I live. My in-laws are going and wanted us to go with them... so, they twisted my arm :)

[@GlennMartinPhotography]

@@TheNewJankyWorkshop I'm sure much twisting was involved

[@TheNewJankyWorkshop]

@@GlennMartinPhotography Arm hasn't worked right since...

[@coolabahwoodworking]

Hold my beer got to go take a photo 😂

[@GlennMartinPhotography]

Love it!

[@coolabahwoodworking]

@@GlennMartinPhotography 😂😂😂

[@kurtklingbeil6900]

I envision the possibility of building an aurora-detecting camera/detector which would wide-angle look at the sky and by some degree of processing - as simple as aurora-green colour detection I have a sense it is a pretty defined wavelength and then chirp out an alert message from 0-100% coolness Not so much for actually capturing frames - although that is possible Does that seem pragmatic on a sub-NASA budget ? I envision prototyping with an "old" cellphone which might have enough processing power to do the required processing, or alternatively a"security" camera type thing streaming data to some other device for processing. Any ideas on something like this ? In our area there is an aurorawatch site which will send email alerts - but that doesn't control for atmospherics or local intensity variations over time

[@GlennMartinPhotography]

In Australia our Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) will send an email alert when a geomagnetic storm is happening. The Glendale app is also super useful for predictions of potential events

[@kurtklingbeil6900]

I am curious about the focus bit... Can one not rely on cranking the focus to infinity ? Surely lenses don't permit focusing "too far" I am curious about the practicalities involved in building an aurora detector / streaming camera. Something which would be scanning a wide angle sky with some northward bias and looking for aurora-esque features / coloration etc suitable to then issue a localized alert.

[@GlennMartinPhotography]

@@kurtklingbeil6900 unfortunate there’s no true infinity on lenses. There’s an infinity mark, but then you’ll see there’s a zone of discretion and this is typically due to temperature changes making micro shifts in focus.

[@kurtklingbeil6900]

@@GlennMartinPhotography thanks... interesting Are you saying that the manufacturer explicitly allows the "infinity" to be "over-focused" such that under forseeable temperature/expansion conditions that it is possible to reach true-infinity +/- ? I imagine for something as diffuse as Aurorae against dark sky, one could just spin to the far end as a first approximation...

[@GlennMartinPhotography]

Yep exactly what I am saying. That's why if you typically just spin your lens as far as it will go, you'll get diffuse spots as opposed to sharp stars, but if you turn back the focus ring just slightly you will see the spots get smaller and sharpen up. Unfortunatly there's not great advice about achiving infinity curing the day and then putting tape on the focus ring, but if there's a 20c change in the ambient temp from day to night that will shift the focus point. You could definitly just spin to the hard stop to see the aurora in camera, but with longer exposures the aurora becomes less defined due to it's movment, and a "soft focus" would exacerbate that as well.