Some Aurora shots

These were taken just north of Whitehorse in the Yukon on the night of March 1st.  There was a bright moon so the mountains in the distance could be seen but the stars were somewhat washed out.

The Merrill seems good in low light, as long as you give it adequate exposure.  It responds well to long shutter speeds.  You can see more stars in these pix than you could with your eye.

I also took a few with the DP1s which were grainier.

these are great shots.  I have to admit that I've never had any luck with long exposures with my DP3M or with my original DP1.  I'm probably holding my mouth wrong when I shoot.  

Nicely done.

dmaclau wrote:

these are great shots. I have to admit that I've never had any luck with long exposures with my DP3M or with my original DP1. I'm probably holding my mouth wrong when I shoot.

Thanks.  This scene lends itself to long exposures because you can increase contrast and reduce exposures to get a nice looking shot without worrying about making things look realistic, ie. like flesh tones etc.

If I ever get another opportunity I would lock the camera off and take many exposures in a row.  I met someone the next day who did that and he made a stop motion looking series of shots that look great, showing the ebb and flow of the aurora.

Jan

That must have been a pretty strong aurora to get such a good exposure out of iSO 400!  Impressive.

Some people in Whitehorse said that it was the brightest they had seen this year.  Lucky us!

The ISO doesn't really mean anything.  Iris and shutter were set manually.

Thank you, by the way, for your earlier pointers on exposure settings for auroras.

Jan

jande9 wrote:

Some people in Whitehorse said that it was the brightest they had seen this year. Lucky us!

The ISO doesn't really mean anything. Iris and shutter were set manually.

Thank you, by the way, for your earlier pointers on exposure settings for auroras.

Jan

Well, I was thinking about the combination of the ISO and shutter speed (15 seconds I think?).  I'm glad if what I did helped in any way, even if you took a slightly different take on settings.  

I'm really glad you got a chance to see the effect, since it's so variable and you may see nothing.  On the trip I took my images, the night before the pictures were taken there was absolutely nothing.  The next night it was spectacular.  So if anyone else goes on an aurora watching trip, I'd give yourself a few days for a chance to see something good.

This always looks amazing.