Another question for the pros

[Blue_In_AK]

I've been told that to shoot northern lights, I should set the ISO at 200, F stop at 2.8 and exposure 10-15 seconds. I'd like to use a wide lens, but mine only go down to 4.0. Would I need to bump up the ISO to 400 to make up the difference? My 50 and 100 mm lenses have those big f stops, but wouldn't get the whole sky.

Advice, anybody?

[CC]

1. I would take the lens

down to 4.0, keep the ISO at 200 and maybe up the time to 15-20 seconds and bracket bracket bracket. You could even start at 10 secs and work your way up. Plus you do have the window to review each pic after you take it. You are looking for the colors to be showing and it to not look like daylight.

You might want to have a different lens to try out too. Specially if you have a hard time getting away from all man made light. Maybe a pro will come along before too late and have better info for you.

They said if the fog clears from here we might see them this far south. Doesn't look like the fog is going anywhere though.