Lights in the bright

The northern light season is sadly reaching its end. The nights are becoming shorter and shorter, and we have no proper darkness anymore.

This photo was taken in Telegrafbukta, the beach in the southern tip of the Tromsø island, and it is probably the last photograph I will take this season, as weather forecasts are not very promising for the next few days...

I will keep working with material from previous nights, stay tuned! You can also visit my facebook page or send me an e-mail if you have any questions!

ISO 100, f=2.8, 10 seconds exposure time

Free aurora (northern light) apps for android and iphone/iPad

When we are going out to see northern lights, we want to know how the activity is, and we need reliable sources to know how high our expectations should be. 

In the useful links post I set some links that can help us in that regard. A personal recommendation is to bookmark those pages in your smartphones before going out to chase the lights, and just tap on the bookmark whenever you are out in the cold. However, there are eager developers that have created fantastic apps that do the work for us, and give all the information in a single place.

I am an Android user, so I can talk from experience with the Android apps, but for iPhone apps, I have a really limited view (only comments from fellow photographers).

Android smartphones and tablets:

Just checking the Google Play store results for "aurora app", we get several options (click on the name for the Play Store description):

• Aurora forecast (by TINAC Inc): This app is a full-functioning piece of software. The main window shows a real-time picture of the sun, estimations of solar winds (the stronger the winds, the more probability for northern lights on the coming days), and the Space Weather Ovation (the same you can see on the top-left of this blog). The "Recent plots" tab shows the activity regarding the Kp-index (indexes above 2 indicate that a light is most likely happening) or the power (in GigaWatts). The "Forecast" tab gives the estimated activity (from 1 to 9) for the coming days, based on the solar activity. 
• It also has a paid function ($1.99) which allows to get notifications when the activity is over a threshold value (that you can set yourself). 
• Aurora notifier (by BeeBeetle): This app is a simple app: it has an animated auroral ovation with the KP-index, and it has a free notification function where you can set a threshold.
• The premium version offers more detailed information, which is covered by the previous application I commented on
• Aurora buddy (by CombatDave): the free version offers the auroral oval in real time, Kp index and an approximate probability to see the northern light in the strong part of the oval. 
• The premium version offers more detailed information, covered mostly by the first application reviewed.
• Norway lights (by Visit Norway): The official app from the tourist office in Norway. Basic and simple: it combines the weather forecast and the northern light forecast, and says "Try" or "go" if it is likely that you will see the lights. It is simple and it works, especially when you do not want to start checking a million indexes, concepts, measurements...

iPhone and iPad: 

There are apps that are the same for Android and IOS, so I will refer to the same descriptions above

• Aurora forecast (by TINAC Inc)
• Norway lights (by Visit Norway)
• Aurora (by Roger Moffatt): I have not had the chance to check this app thoroughly, but it gives similar information as the "Aurora Forecast" by TINAC, it is mostly a different layout

Of course, there are plenty of other apps out in the market, I have reviewed the ones that my colleagues and I use during our long nights...

As a bottom line, I would like to add: all these apps use information freely available on the net, so it is counter-intuitive to pay for something that is given for free. Bookmark the websites that give you the best information (www.spaceweather.com and www.swpc.noaa.gov/ovation, for example) and just access them from your smartphone whenever you need them!

Did I miss any interesting app? Is there something missing? Let me know via e-mail or in the facebook page!

Morild

Morild is the name of the noctilucales, or sea sparkles. These dinoflagellates (really small animals) emit small amounts of light when they are excited (with waves, for example), and give a ghostly feeling to the coastlines. You can read the Wikipedia entry about them, or a bit more scientific reading here

The spectacle is astonishing: once you are in a dark place, see the mountains, the northern light above us... and suddenly, you start seeing a blue shimmering band along the coastline! Every step you take close to the coastline brightens up with a blue tint!

When you are out and open your eyes, you can see more than what you expect!

The lesson learned here is that we should always expect the unexpected, and open our eyes for the wonders that nature can offer us...

Do you like the photo?

Let me know your thoughts on  facebook, or send me an e-mail!

ISO 1250, f=2.8, 25 seconds exposure time

The best northern light camera

In other words... what camera do I need to see northern lights?

I have received several questions about this issue via e-mail, so I will explain a little bit about cameras. I have already explained in previous posts (short version and long version) how to take pictures of a northern light with your SLR camera. Although this information may be a bit too shallow for the most experienced photographers, this is the cheat-sheet most of newcomers use for northern light photography.

However, the market is filled with plenty of cameras that have several different features, and choosing the right equipment can be really painful for most of us.

I will not do a review of all the equipment available in the market, but I will rather give a small piece of advice: the best camera is the one you have. Learn to use it, and learn to love it. The rest will come by itself.

I have taken photos of northern lights with a point and shoot camera, which were (when I took them) the best pictures I would dream of taking. After a while, I saw that the camera had several limitations, and decided to upgrade for a low-end SLR camera. My budget was quite low at that time, and I bought an Olympus E-420 (read the technical review here). Why?
It was an SLR camera, and it was a bundled offer including two kit lenses. I had no idea of sensors, crop factor, benchmark tests... I decided that I would learn by doing. I never bought an extra lens for that camera, as I was more than satisfied with the results by then. Does this photo look bad to you?

ISO 800, f=3.5, 5 seconds exposure time

After some time, I started seeing the limitations of the camera, and I decided to go for another upgrade. I bought a Canon EOS 60D: it felt like a major upgrade, and I invested on a Samyang 14mm f2.8 lens. That investment happened three years ago, and I am still using the same equipment. And I am learning how to use it every time I take a photo…

In conclusion: you can always buy a better camera, a newer model, a better lens... but sometimes, a low-end camera is all you need.

Do you need help choosing a camera or a lens? Contact me or ask on the facebook page!

Colorblind lights

I have to admit that I am colorblind. I learned that I had that problem quite late (I was already 20 by then!), so it is not as bad as it may sound at a first sight.

There are three major types of colorblindness, and I encourage you to test yourselves(for example here: http://colorvisiontesting.com/ishihara.htm). You may be surprised!

So now the question is: how does a colorblind see the northern lights? Or as some people ask me: how can you like the northern lights, if you cannot see the colors? The picture here is an example of how does a "normal" viewing person see the northern lights, and how do I see that same picture. Although I know that there is a big difference between both pictures, I cannot see any.

There are lots of information on the net about this problem (Wikipedia has a lot of information about it), but please, do not feel pity of us colorblinds. We just enjoy life differently!

If you want to see certain pictures from your own as a colorblind, please send them to me and I will send them back "color-blinded"! You can also leave it as a comment on my facebook page. Don't be shy!

ISO 1600, f=2.8, 8 seconds exposure time

Into the dark kingdom

Yes, northern Norway is the dark kingdom during winter: the endless polar night, below freezing temperatures... but every kingdom has a king and a queen: here the king is the darkness, but the queen is our beloved northern light. She comes to dance for us, with different make-up every day!

Please, watch it in HD to get the full resolution video!

I have included different techniques in this video:
The daytime sequences have been taken using the hyperlapse technique: this technique means taking a photo every certain distance, or in this case, angle. I changed my camera angle for approximately half a degree for each of the individual shots, and then set the time-lapse in Adobe After effects. The result is a smooth panning with quickly moving clouds, that would not be seen if the panning was done in a normal video.

The northern light sequences are steady time-lapses, and I added the motion afterwards in post-processing. I have tried to make them as close as possible to the real time, but the sequences in this video are far from being real time: if you look at the stars, and you see them moving, you know that the acceleration is significant (at least 5 seconds of reality per second in video). Of course, the faster they move, the more the acceleration.

All the sequences were taken with a Canon EOS 60D and a Samyang 14mm lens.

I will explain in further posts the hyperlapse technique, and of course, feel free to ask questions about the sequences, or any other issue :)

What do you think about it?

Let me know on  facebook, or send me an e-mail!

Milky lights

This is one of my last shots, taken in Hillesøya (Tromsø).

A dark night, good northern lights and a great location led me to try a panorama shot. for that purpose, I had to first set my tripod in a proper horizontal surface, so the panning would be smooth.

Then, I decided to set the ISO value to 5000: I wanted to get the milky way in the picture, and that needs long exposures with high ISO. Then, to get a nice foreground too, I decided to use long exposure (20 seconds) and darken the picture later in post-processing.

I set the camera in portrait orientation (vertically), and shot individual pictures that would overlap 20-30% with each other, for a smooth stitching.

Back home, the process was simple: darken the overall picture, increase the white color to boost the milky way, and then just go to Photoshop and use the Panorama tool that the program has built-in. After processing (it take some time!) I got this final shot.

What do you think about it?
Let me know on  facebook, or send me an e-mail!

ISO 5000, f=2.8, 20 seconds exposure. 10 photos stitched together