New member needs some advice

Emma

New member
Hi everyone, I have a Nikon D3400 I love my camera very much and have taken some amazing pictures with it. The advice I need is, I’m going to Norway on Thursday what would be the best settings to;
A) take photos in the snow
B) take photos of the Northern Lights )fingers crossed!!)
Thank you 😊
 

Needa

Senior Member
Challenge Team
Emma welcome!

What mode do you normally shoot in manual, auto or something in between. For snow, shooters that use the auto mode might see if there is a beach/snow mode under your scenes settings. If you are shooting PSMA mode remember in daylight the cameras meter will try to under expose the scene if it consists mainly of snow.

As for the northern lights maybe some else can offer you some advice.

You may want to look up some tips on cold weather shooting if you are not familiar. Carry a large zip-lock bag to put your camera in after you are finished and before you bring it back inside. This will help keep moisture from condensing in side the camera and lens. You should keep them in the bag until it reaches inside temperature.
 

Bikerbrent

Senior Member
Welcome aboard. Enjoy the ride.
We look forward to seeing more posts and samples of your work.

Do a GOOGLE search for:
how to photograph northern lights
and
how to photograph snow scenes

I will get more suggestions than you can use.
 

Marcel

Happily retired
Staff member
Super Mod
Welcome to our Forum,

For snow, just use the beach or snow mode as someone else mentionned. For Northern Lights, what you will need is a good tripod. Don't even attempt to do it without a tripod. Use the shutter delay mode so the camera is completely still when the shutter opens.
 

Blade Canyon

Senior Member
You definitely need a tripod for the northern lights. Set ISO to 1600, shutter speed for 20 to 60 seconds, aperture open as much as possible. Manual focus at infinity. Make adjustments to shutter speed or ISO as needed.

For sunny shots in the snow, set your exposure compensation to +1.5 if you are using P mode (or A or S). The old rule is "brighten your brights and darken your darks." That's because your camera meter will read all of the light from the snow and reduce your exposure, making the snow gray and the people too dark. By adjusting the exp. compensation to add twice as much light or more, you are getting more light on your subject, and the snow should look a true white. If the D3400 can shoot in RAW mode, do that, so you can make better adjustments to exposure in Photoshop.
 
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