Aurora Borealis in Eastern Finland

[ValoPeikko]

These are the first time I had the chance to photograph aurora borealis. They appeared from out of nowhere here in south-eastern Finland. In a place where their occurrence is rare and even more rare that they are vivid enough to be photographed. So I had to take my shot. Shooting hundreds of frames and then trying to come up with a reasonable presentation on what I experienced.

I hope someone could give pointers and tips on this kind of photography. I'm totally new to photographing stars, or celestial phenomenon. It was a fun experience, something completely new both for photographing and for post-editing. I learned a lot.

[Torbjörn Tapani]

In a way I kind of like images from lower latitudes. You get a nice green/purple aurora that can be photographed with some normal to wide lens. Further north you will see the aurora overhead and will need some ultrawide just to get it and the ground in the frame at the same time. You actually  also caught the Andromeda galaxy there in the center of the first image and to the right in the second.

There are so many great resources with tips on aurora photography, I could not even begin to scratch the surface. Fast lenses help for sure

[thierrylegros396]

The 2nd is outstanding, wow!

Congratulations.

Thierry

[sdwilsonsct]

Nice start! I think the most effective aurora photos work some foreground or landscape into the picture. Ice or water reflects the sky. Moonlight or the faintest remnants of sunset can illuminate the land.

[Adam L]

There are huge geomagnetic storm under way right now.   The next two days should be fantastic for auroras.   I visit SpaceWeather.com  On today's page there is a very nice aurora image.  If you click it you'll get into an Aurora Gallery where you can upload and share images.  I bet there is someone on this site that could help.

[ValoPeikko]

Today I did some more testing
This subject is challenging and I like that. Completely different beast to my usual cup of tea. This is the first shot from today, not really edited with care or anything yet.

[maddogmurph]

I officially don't like you and am also incredibly jealous.  I must see these myself.

[ValoPeikko]

Let's hope this keeps up for few more days. Time to learn and try new tricks

[Rajan Parrikar]

The second image is very good.

There are huge geomagnetic storm under way right now.   The next two days should be fantastic for auroras.

Last night, the Lights were blazing over Reykjavík, an unbelievably strong display. I could get snapshots with an iPhone even with the city lights.

[Paulo Bizarro]

These are very nice. In the last ones you posted, the illuminated rock is out of focus, which is a bit distracting. Perhaps you can try shooting two images, one for the foreground, one for the background, with different focus points, and combine them later?