Anyone shot the Northern Lights before?

Nexus · 12 Sep 2012 at 22:08

I think you need a higher iso in order to use a shutter speed that isn't a particularly long exposure, otherwise you end up with a totally coloured sky like I did, rather than the shapes it forms.

Its certainly something that requires lots of playing about and tweaking to capture effectively.

mrk · 12 Sep 2012 at 22:12

NR in camera won't be used (5Diii) as the algorithm the camera loses too much detail compared to manually reducing noise in LR/PS

I can use up to 12,800 ISO without having noise ruin a usable photo so I'll definitely have a good old play on the nights before!

Nexus · 13 Sep 2012 at 00:15

mrk said:
NR in camera won't be used (5Diii) as the algorithm the camera loses too much detail compared to manually reducing noise in LR/PS

Where did you discover that?
Through personal testing?

mrk · 13 Sep 2012 at 00:59

Nexus said:
Where did you discover that?
Through personal testing?

When shooting JPEG yes, I shoot RAW anyway though so doesn't really matter either way I guess.

ISO12800:

50mm, f/2.0, 1/80s. AF point was the arrow but I'll 100% crop the plugs as detail loss is visible on the grips there.

JPEG with NR on max:

JPEG with NR on standard:

JPEG with NR on low:

RAW with Lightroom noise reduction (Luminance @ 25, Detail @ 65):

RAW with no noise reduction:

Obviously for web use most people would not tell the difference on a processed 800pixel wide image but for production work it's quite important that as much detail as possible remains post any noise reduction being applied.