Northern Lights Over Busk
On Friday 10th of May, thanks to a massive solar flare, we were treated to the best northern lights to appear over the UK for decades.
And this once in a lifetime event coincided with the night sky over Busk being clear of cloud, which in itself is almost miraculous. We were doubly lucky as we had no clue that a light show was in the offing and were heading off to bed. Only a last minute glance at the BBC website prompted Polly to look out of the back door. The next few minutes was shear panic as, totally unprepared, we scrambled to put shoes on, find and assemble camera stuff and get out.
I’m no expert in photographing the lights, it’s not as if they switch on that often, but if anyone’s interested I’ve provided the camera information for each shot above and made some notes below:
- The camera in question is a Nikon Z7, paired with a Nikon Z 24mm S f/1.8 lens. The Nikon 24mm is the widest, fastest lens I own. I’m not a fan of super wide lenses, but for once I could have done with one.
- We’re lucky enough to live in a place where there’s no light pollution, so we could turn off (most of) the lights and head to place not far from the house to find the darkest and best view.
- Except for the first shot in the above sequence, which was taken handheld, the camera was sat on a tripod so as to get down to a reasonable ISO 400 and remove any camera shake.
- For every shot bar one, the exposure was kept at 8 seconds so that the stars appear as points rather than streaks (which you can see on the 25 second exposure if you look close). If you’re interested check out the 500 rule.
- To ensure the stars were tack sharp, focus was set manually using magnification and focus peaking aids. Autofocus sucks when looking at the night sky.
- The photographs were post processed in Lightroom to taste, including using the de-noise feature to clean up the images. Note that neither the saturation or vibrancy was increased, but adjusting whites, blacks, contrast and white balance all affect colours, both tone and vividness.
- That’s about it!
I’ve no idea about using an iPhone or other smart phones, but I’ve seen some great photos taken with them. I suspect that on close inspection they won’t be as technically “good” as pics taken with a decent DSLR or mirrorless camera, but as the saying goes ”the best camera is the one you have with you“ and that’s the beauty of smart phones! That so many people were able to photograph, then share their experience of such a unique event is pretty dam wonderful in my book!