Charity begins at home and a Northern Lights question

[BertRoot]

Mate of mine and his Mrs are going Northern Lights chasing in a week or so up in Finland. She is a photographer but only really shoots far away things so has an 100-400 and a 300 but only an 1-55 at the short end. She was going to take the dustpump with her but I thought she could do with something shorter.

Anyway I leant her my Tokina 11-16 f/2.8 and my 17-40 F4.0. Do you reckon she will get anything worth looking at? Is wide best or long tele best?

See what a kind cunt I am?

[prezzy]

oh that northern lights

[blaggard]

I can only answer the last question............

[BertRoot]

oh that northern lights

Buhahahahahahahaha, I'll take some of the other though and no advice needed...

[Little John]

I don't know where they are going but I prefer wide for elevated shots so you dont get the distortion of wide not being level. which is strange really as I like wide distortion most of the time but not for landscapes.

I would go with the 17-40 its also much more usable that the 11-16 for other things.

[BertRoot]

so you dont get the distortion of wide not being level. which is strange really as I like wide distortion most of the time but not for landscapes

You need to attend Photoshop 101 mate...

[Little John]

I know it can be fixed but I prefer to get it right in the camera

[_Belial]

I'd take a look at lensesforhire and get a super-wide hired.

Last time I went for the northern lights I hired the Nikkon 12-24 off them, it was such an amazing lens that I bought one when I got home. I always rent from them before I go on holiday (no affiliantion here btw), their service is 2nd to none. I went to Iceland again a couple of months ago and took a fisheye with me, but the weather was off so didn't get a glimpse of the lights that time. But definitely, tell them to take a wide, and something nice and fast too so they can shoot at around f/2 or f/3.

[BertRoot]

Thanks for that. They got back last night and it was cloudy all the time. Would be well pissed off. Said they got some good landscape stuff though with the widey.

[_Belial]

Ah yeah, i've had a few aurora trips where it's been like that, they'll be gutted, but also it just makes you want to go again even more Expect them to book another trip within the year

[Fear345]

I know it can be fixed but I prefer to get it right in the camera

How do you compensate for barrel distortion in camera?

[Little John]

I am on about no tilting make sure you keep the lens/camera level to prevent converging lines, barrel distortion just buy better lenses or dont use them at their widest focal lenght.

[BertRoot]

Eh? Buy better lenses? Any UWA will give barrel distortion if you use it to its limits and its very easily corrected so while you may get a picture you don't need to touch I wouldn't be getting the picture that I would want.

[Fear345]

I am on about no tilting make sure you keep the lens/camera level to prevent converging lines, barrel distortion just buy better lenses or dont use them at their widest focal lenght.

How long have you been a professional photographer ? i have been a freelance news photographer for a little over 15 years now and your telling me how to do the job i do every day ?

[Little John]

Bertroot I did mention the bit about using it at the extremes I found the sigma 10-20 I had suffered a lot more than the 10-22 the 10-22 is pretty good at 10-12, 14-20 no problem + very good. so buying a better lens made a difference for me.

Fear345, no not telling you how to do your job that would go somthing along the lines of find the story take the photos and submit to the papers or agencies. Or wait for the papers to contact you and ask you to go take the photo and send it to them I have thought about going shooting a few events that have happend round here and sending them in but I don't fancy the standing arround outside in the cold a lot, I prefer to shoot stuff indoors where they either pay me to turn up or buy prints from me. Some receint work should be in OK magazine in the next month from what I heard, I get a lot of jobs becasue I won't submit photos to the magazines and papers there are plenty of stuff they would be interested in.

[BertRoot]

TBH the 11-16 is sharp as fuck at f/2.8 and suffers minimal distortion at 11 or 16 in my experience and anything noticeable inside the crop is very easily corrected. Sigmas are shit I agree, owned and sold a few of their lenses, hence why I invested more in a more capable lens with much greater ability in low light which is important to me. .

Here you go, F/2.8 at 11mm.