The Northern Lights // In Real Time and Time-lapsed + My Top Five Tips

in #photography6 years ago

A little over a year ago, I was introduced to the low light capabilities of Sony's Full Frame lineup and when it came time for an upgrade, I jumped ship from Canon. Now, to put aside all of my thoughts on the two different manufacturer's systems, I'd like to share my experience shooting the Aurora Borealis over the past year with you. More specifically so, my experience video recording these great light shows.



Time-lapse of 200 images taken over the course of an hour.


Above, you'll find one of the first time-lapses that I had ever created with my a7R II. Sony offered an app for their cameras, which was available for purchase at $9.99. I figured I would give it a go and see how it went. The app was intended to work just as an intervalometer would; however, it was pretty buggy and did not give me full control over my camera's bulb mode. In fact, this was originally intended to be twice the length, but the app froze up halfway through and locked up my camera for a while. Thankfully, I was able to recover the images and still create the clip. Another thing to mention was that at the time of using this app, it only allowed you to shoot jpegs, which was quite unfortunate. The app also used a much larger portion of my battery than I anticipated. If I remember correctly, I had to replace my battery not once, but twice, over the course of shooting these 200 images. Normally the battery will last 300-400 shots, but that app drew a lot of power.

Now, I know some of you may be thinking "why didn't he just use the Sony Time-lapse app?" Well, if you've used it and you like it, then that's awesome. However, it doesn't really fit my needs. I want control over the RAWs that go into the time-lapse and I want to be able to stitch them all together myself. But that's just me and what I like to do.

Some takeaways I had from this night:

  • Use an actual intervalometer.
  • Double and triple check your camera during the time-lapse to ensure it's still running and nothing went wrong.
  • Have extra batteries on hand.
  • Shoot the images at a shorter interval when the lights are more active. Otherwise you'll end up with a choppy clip.


Actual video clips stitched together from back in September of 2017.


The clip above is from one of the best aurora nights I had ever had the pleasure of bearing witness to. We were on a mountain side, shooting in every direction we could as they danced all around us. You can tell in the video just how intense they were. There were some points that I even had to turn my exposure down a bit to try and not have them burn out part of the image. There was just so much color, form, and movement; it was absolutely fantastic.



*Time-lapse of over 300 images taken over a couple of hours.


This time-lapse was created after we spent a night camping in Healy, Alaska. It was mid September and the aurora activity was really picking up for the year. There were displays at all hours of the night, which is quite special. Most nights the Aurora Borealis will only peak a few times during the dead hours of night. This night, the aurora was dancing a bit more calmly than my first clip, so I could have a longer interval between shots. I also increased the total quantity of shots too, in order to make the overall movement in the clip appear to be smoother. What you're seeing here in 8 seconds elapsed for hours above us.



An unedited, single clip of footage from the a7R II.


This final clip I have for you today was taken last spring in Hatcher Pass. It was ridiculously cold outside, but the bearing the low temps was worth it. Those cold nights tend to make for a great show and that's what we got. You can hear the wind brushing against the camera and the footsteps and conversations of those shooting who were trying to keep warm.

This video has a mix of different aurora displays. Sometimes you'll see thick bands across the sky that can sit there for hours. Other nights you may see flickering or flashing, which can even have different colors like yellow, pink, and red. Throughout most of the clip, you'll see columns and bands all around the frame, but between 0:50 and 1:20, you can watch some pink flickering in the center. For my videos, I like to clean up the noise a bit, as shooting between 8,000 and 52,000 ISO can get quite messy. I don't do any color grading on my aurora videos though, as I like the look they get SOOC. People can also get quite frustrated when they see these fantastic colors from all points of the rainbow in videos and then they don't see them during their own outings. So I try my best to mitigate that as well by not coloring them any differently.


Thank you for following along this far. Here are my top five tips for recording the Aurora Borealis:

  1. Use a tripod. So many people don't like to use them, but just do it. You'll be glad you had the extra stability.
  2. Open your lens as wide as it can go. I shoot my lights with a Sigma 24mm f/1.4 Art lens. I shoot my videos of the aurora at f/1.4.
  3. Always record for longer than you plan to. It seems like almost every time I stop recording because I think I'm done or that the display is over, the sky just explodes with color and by the time I'm ready to record again, it's gone.
  4. Depending on your camera, shooting at ISOs between 8,000 and 16,000 are usually pretty good for getting video of the lights. Shooting at higher ISOs of course can work as well, but at that range, your video can get very muddy with noise and artificial coloration.
  5. For time-lapses, longer exposures and shorter intervals make for creamier, smooth movement. While, shorter exposures and longer intervals give more shape and definition to the aurora and its shape. It's a give-and-take kind of balancing act.

Seeing the Northern Lights in video and through images is one thing, but getting out and chasing them down for yourself is truly something else. I've been running after the Aurora Borealis for nearly four years now and it never gets old. Sure, you get a lot of disappointing nights, but the nights where the lights shoot across the whole sky make it totally worth it. So embrace the cold, the sleepless nights, and the potential for disappointment and go get after it. I promise you, Nature will make it worth your while one of these nights.

Best of luck to you in your chase,
Dimitri

p.s. If you've seen or written any time-lapse or aurora video/photography articles here on Steemit, please link them below in the comments. I'd love to read them and see what else I can learn!

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Stunning time-lapse videos of the northern lights, and great tips too. Thanks @dimitri0610

Thank you so much! @monajam

Amazing Aurora! Thank you for sharing

Hey, thank you very much! I'll continue to share stuff like this!

Fantastic work @dimitri0610, of course https://steemit.com/@chaseburnett comes to mine! My only comment is that wide open many lenses perform dreadfully for astrophotography, but on a subject like capturing the subtle realtime movement of aurora it's really the best option.

Thank you! And yes of course, I shoot with him often. And you're very right, when it comes to astro, I'd rather go down a stop or so. But just as you said as well, when it comes to picking up that slight movement and form, you need as much light as possible. I'd personally take a bit of softness over the extra iso that would be required to make up for it. Plus, the aurora 90% of the time is a more fluid, creamier structure and you can't even tell if it is soft or not. There are definitely trade offs. Overall, the aurora is just a spectacular phenomenon!!

Stunning scenery!

Thank you very much!

Really good write up dude! If I’m ever near the aurora like this, I’ll look to you and chase for tips.

Now about that Sony... I thought we could finally be friends.... Hahahaha jk

Thanks, dude! They're definitely worth checking out. So, please tell me you're a Canon shooter? I always had Canon point and shoots growing up and then started my DSLR track on a 70D. I absolutely loved that thing. I was at a point last year between the a7R II and the 5D mkIV and I went with the Sony (kept all of my Canon glass; you can't beat it!). Figured I'd try it out, as I love to shoot landscapes and astro. It has been a great camera for those things, but you can ask anyone in our group... I want to go back to Canon so badly! Hahaha.

Didn't know that shooting the Northern Lights is a passion in itself and a separate type of photography. Everynight I stay awake it seems I'm learning something new :)

Yes, it can be quite incredible!

Really amazing time lapses, i have also lapsed skies, clouds and fog movements this far and plan on making much more time lapses when spring and summer comes. I have one question for you. Lets say im gonna timelapse about 2-3 times a week. Will this affect my camera eventually ?Im using Nikon full frame camera and lens. Golden rule is as follows : everything that moves, wears. I dont want to get rid of my expensive piece of optics just yet :D

Thank you very much! I'd love to see some of that stuff! I'll tell you, when I first started I was definitely worried about wearing through my bodies as well. My first camera was a Canon 70D and those things are rated around 50K-100K actuations. I put over 100K on it in less than two years and it held up so well, I'm sure it could have kept going for a very long time. As for my a7R II now, I'm not quite sure of the count, but I'd have to say I'm nearing 80K-90K in just the past year. A lot of that comes from time-lapses. Most manufacturers though will only rate the lifespan of their full frame bodies to levels between 150K-500K. However, Canon and Nikon have both produced impressive data showing that some of their bodies have reached into the millions for some users. Incredibly enough, there are records of some Canon 5D mkIIs making it to over 8 million. Now sure, this definitenly won't happen for everyone, but I'd like to think that with proper care and good luck, that our shutters will have good, long lives. And of course, if it is to crap out on you, you can always get it replaced. Shutters are relatively low cost to replace when compared to purchasing an entirely new body. -- And if you're interested, you can check out this database out. It was created back in 2007 (I believe) and allowed people to report their actuation counts on many different models. It's quite neat to see just how far some of these bodies made it.

Thank you for your detailed and informative reply. I didn´t even tought about that it is always possible to replace shutter, not buying whole new body.

Yup! It is certainly a great alternative.

Thank you for sharing your clips of the northern lights. I truly love the beautifully colored petticoats swirling in the sky. It is one of my bucket list dreams to see the northern lights in person.

It was one of mine as well, and it still is! They just don't get old. They're always so astonishing. I hope you get to fullfill your dream and see them one day!

Great work! It's exciting that real-time Aurora videos are possible now - we can finally say "here, this is what the Aurora really looks like" instead of just showing a photo. The photos are more colourful because of the longer exposure times possible, but in being static they lack so much of the excitement you feel when you're there. :)

Precisely! It gives a much better idea of the reality of it. As well as displaying what kind of structures can be formed by the aurora. It's incredible to be able to see them and watch them over and over again. Whereas to just witness it in nature, it's gone in the blink of an eye! Thank you!

Yes, that's a good point - a lot of the structure is lost, even in a short long-exposure, when it's doing its crazy thing!

What a beautiful scenery, pictures and videos. I would like to shoot the northern lights some day. Maybe i am visiting Iceland for this.

Thank you! You should definitely do it. Iceland would be a great place to see them.

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