Aurora in the Arctic ~ HELP NEEDED!!!

[trout bum]

also posted in Photo Critique...

The Aurora were out something fierce last night, more breathtakingly than I've ever seen them. I need some help though! They're going to be out again tonight and I need to get rid of the noise, or minimize it at least. If possible. That being said, I need the advice of people who know more than I do and this forum has always provided that kind of input.

Shooting settings were as follows... f/14, 58.8 seconds exposure time, iso 1250, +3 exposure bias, show with a Nikon D300s, AF-S Nikkor 16-85 MM 1:3.5-5.6 using tripod and remote cord.

[flyinion]

Disclaimer: I've only been learning for about 20 months and still trying to figure out F stops as far as what minimum would be needed for landscape stuff to not get blurring.

That said, my instinct (which could be totally wrong) would be to open up that aperture a bit, for some reason f/8 is sticking in my mind, and crank down the ISO. The ISO being so high is why you're getting noise, that's certain, I'm just thinking you'll need to open up that aperture if you lower the ISO, or you'll have to let the exposure time lengthen for sure. I'm not sure how that last part would affect the picture because I've never seen the Aurora before so I don't know if they move a lot like you see in movies for instance.

[ksbryan0]

I think flyinion has the right idea, but I'd try wide open. I've seen distant landscape shot at very low F-stop values, and they come out very sharp. Your subject is essentially at infinity, so wide open should get the job done with less exposure time, thus less noise.

[freygr]

I think flyinion has the right idea, but I'd try wide open. I've seen distant landscape shot at very low F-stop values, and they come out very sharp. Your subject is essentially at infinity, so wide open should get the job done with less exposure time, thus less noise.

Yes but make sure that the focus is set at infinitity.