The great May auroral display had many people around the world shooting Aurora for the first time with their fancy cameras and cell phone alike. So many people have asked about the best settings.
If you do any night photography with a camera and lens you know that you generally need a fast prime lens ideally around f/2.8. For the aurora you want a wide lens 14-20mm on a full frame camera. For an all sky aurora like May 11, 2024 I wish I had used a fish eye ( 8mm lens).
Generally night photography setting range from ISO 1600-6400 to even higher. Different cameras have different light sensitivity so part of the learning process is to practice, practice, practice, on any clear night and try to catch fainter auroral displays. My Nikon z6ii is quite light sensitive so I rarely need to go above ISO 1600.
The aurora not only varies in brightness can move very fast. You need to balance the proper night exposure ( long enough exposures and high enough ISO) with a short enough exposure to avoid blur. I began the evening shooting 4 sec exposures ( often I start at 8seconds). As you can see the colour is vivid but the rays are not as sharp.
By the end of the evening I could actually see the explosive flashes and sudden movement of the Aurora and knew I needed really short exposures. This meant I bumped up the ISO and shortened the exposures to 1sec to capture sharp individual images.
By the middle of the night the aurora was pulsating and moving so quickly I knew I had to shorten the exposure to get a sharp crisp image. I lowered my exposure to1 sec increased the ISO . The aurora was so bright that it was easy to still capture enough light.
This was a rare and powerful storm however and very unusual photographic experience., I will remember this night for a long time.
Flexibility is the name of the game, Be prepared to adjust your camera setting to be ready for different kind of aurora displays. This was a very rare and powerful geomagnetic storm one I will not forget for some time.
