Photographing the northern lights, or aurora borealis, may seem daunting, but with the right approach and a few essential tips, you can capture breathtaking images of this natural wonder. The environment where we wait for the aurora is often dark and frigid, sometimes with the added presence of Norwegian moose or even bears if you go further east. The northern lights are notoriously unpredictable; even on nights when forecasts and clear skies look promising, you might spend hours in the cold with nothing to show for it but frostbite and fresh air. Conversely, some of the most spectacular auroras have appeared unexpectedly on seemingly unremarkable, cloudy nights. In short, you never know what the night might bring, so it’s crucial to be both patient and well-prepared.
Ground Rules for Aurora Photography
This guide is based on years of practical experience photographing the northern lights in the Arctic, working with various cameras, and guiding countless guests since 2006 both on land and water. If you're also wondering how to dress appropriately for these conditions, be sure to check out our posts on Arctic gear and how to dress properly.
Essential Gear: Get a Tripod
To capture the northern lights, you’ll need to do long-exposure photography, which means your camera must remain perfectly still. A tripod is your best friend here. If you don't have one, improvise by placing your camera on the ground, a car hood, or even a backpack. Some photographers bring a bag of rice to stabilize the camera, which also doubles as a protective cushion. When booking a trip with us, we normally provide a few extra tripods, including ones designed for mobile phones.
Why fixating your camera is important:Â Long exposures, which are essential for capturing the faint light of the auroras, require absolute stability. Any slight movement during the exposure will result in blurry images, making a tripod an indispensable tool. While many cameras today come with image stabilization features, these are not enough to compensate for the long exposures necessary for aurora photography. A tripod ensures that your camera remains completely still, allowing you to capture the intricate details and colors of the northern lights without any motion blur.
Choosing the Right Tripod:Â When selecting a tripod, consider its weight and stability. A lightweight tripod is easier to carry during long treks to your shooting location, but it must be big enought to hold your camera, and sturdy enough to withstand wind and uneven terrain. Carbon fiber tripods are an excellent choice because they offer a balance between weight and stability. Also, consider a tripod with adjustable legs to easily set up on rocky or snowy ground.
Practice Makes Perfect
This might be the most important advice: practice with your camera before you go. Many guests show up with high-end cameras they don't know how to use. You don’t need the latest or most expensive equipment, but you should be comfortable using your camera in manual mode (M) and know how to adjust the ISO, aperture, and shutter speed settings. Practice outdoors at dusk or night to familiarize yourself with the camera controls, and if you want to be fully prepared, practice with gloves or mittens.
A lot of the guests that we take out during the northern lights season have nice and expensive cameras that they don’t know how to use.
Getting to Know Your Camera:Â Every camera is different, and the best way to ensure success when photographing the northern lights is to be intimately familiar with your gear. Spend time learning how to quickly adjust settings like ISO, aperture, and shutter speed without needing to look at the controls. This skill becomes especially important in the dark, cold conditions you'll face while waiting for the aurora, and the option to work with headlamps or flashlights is not very good when trying to preserve night vision.
Simulating Aurora Conditions:Â Before heading out, try to replicate the conditions you'll face during an aurora shoot. Go out after sunset or before sunrise when the light is low, and practice adjusting your settings. This will help you understand how your camera behaves in low-light conditions and what adjustments you might need to make when the northern lights appear.
Focusing in the Dark
In complete darkness, autofocus is unreliable and often overlooked. It is however crucial for sharp images. Focusing in the dark can be challenging, so use the moon, streetlights, or even a friend with a flashlight or mobile phone as a reference point. Have your friend stand about 20 meters away, and focus on their light. Once focused, switch to manual focus (MF) to lock it in place. The most common mistake is leaving the focus on auto (AF), which struggles in low light and can result in blurry photos - if the camera will even do a photo. For added assurance, you can set your focus during daylight on a distant object like a mountain ridge and leave it for the night. Some photographers even use a piece of tape to lock the focus ring in place once they’ve achieved perfect focus, others use a whiteout marker to keep the settings for later.
Check if your camera has the focus-peaking function that lets you use the LCD monitor to tell you when you have focus. In the dark this function is gold.
Battery and Camera Care in Cold Weather
Cold weather doesn’t usually affect the camera itself, but it can drain your battery much faster. Always carry a spare battery close to your body to keep it warm. Some photographers suggest bringing 5-7 batteries. I never do that, but 1-2 should suffice for most situations. For example, one of my Nikon D750 batteries lasted a whole week at 78 degrees north during winter because I kept it in my sleeping bag at night. But this is a very good camera for cold weather.
Managing Battery Life: In freezing temperatures, batteries lose their charge more quickly. To conserve battery life, turn off unnecessary features like Wi-Fi, image stabilization, and the LCD screen when not in use. If you’re using a mirrorless camera, consider using the electronic viewfinder instead of the rear LCD to further conserve power. When not shooting, keep your camera close to your body or inside your jacket to maintain its warmth.
Battery Rotation Strategy:Â A useful technique is to rotate your batteries throughout the night. Start with a fully charged battery in the camera and keep the spare warm in your pocket. When the battery in the camera starts to lose its charge, swap it with the warm spare and put the cold battery in your pocket to warm up. This can extend the life of both batteries over the course of the night.
Handling Temperature Changes: If you’re lucky enough to have access to a warm cabin or tent, be mindful that your camera and lenses don’t like sudden temperature changes—they’ll fog up or freeze. The best practice is to leave your camera outside and only bring the battery inside with you. Ensure the camera is placed somewhere safe to avoid accidents, as misplaced gear can easily get damaged in the dark.
Camera Settings for Northern Lights Photography
Now to the interesting part. The northern lights are never the same, so your camera settings will vary from night to night. Here are some basic guidelines:
Shutter Speed:Â The amount of time your camera's shutter is open can range from 1 to 30 seconds. Start with a few seconds and adjust based on test shots.
Aperture:Â Generally, you want your aperture as wide open as possible (the lowest f-number). Most kit lenses go as low as f3.5-5.6, while higher-end lenses can go down to f0.95-2.8. For sharper images, you might want to stop up by one stop from your lowest setting. When handling both foreground and background you need higher values, for portraits start at f4.5.
ISO: This controls your camera’s sensitivity to light. Smaller cameras typically peak around ISO 3200, while (very) high-end cameras can exceed ISO 120,000. Higher ISO settings capture more light but can introduce digital noise. For example, my Nikon D750 can handle up to ISO 6400 without too much noise. Noise can be handled pretty well in newer post-production software.
Balancing Exposure: When photographing the northern lights, you're balancing three main settings: shutter speed, aperture, and ISO. A longer shutter speed allows more light into the camera but can also lead to star trails if it’s too long. A wider aperture lets in more light but reduces the depth of field. A higher ISO increases sensitivity to light but can add noise. Understanding how these elements interact is key to finding the perfect exposure and will vary between nights and conditions.
Starting Point Settings:Â A good starting point for northern lights photography is to set your ISO to 1600, your aperture to f2.8, and your shutter speed to around 3 seconds. From there, you can adjust based on the strength of the auroras and the ambient light. If the lights are faint, you may need to increase the ISO or lengthen the shutter speed. Conversely, if the auroras are bright and fast-moving, you might need to reduce the exposure time to avoid overexposure.
Noise Reduction: Most cameras have a long-exposure noise reduction feature that can help reduce noise in your images. However, this feature doubles the time it takes to process each image, which can be a drawback when you’re trying to capture fast-changing auroras. Experiment with this feature to see if the trade-off is worth it for your particular situation. As long as you shoot RAW you can always handle most noise when you get back home.
RAW vs. JPEG Formats
Choosing between RAW and JPEG formats depends on how much post-processing you plan to do. JPEG files are smaller and take up less space but offer less flexibility in editing. RAW files are larger but retain more data, giving you more room to adjust settings like white balance after the fact. Some cameras allow you to shoot in both formats simultaneously.
Why Shoot in RAW: Shooting in RAW gives you the most flexibility in post-processing. Since RAW files contain all the data captured by the camera’s sensor, you can make more significant adjustments to exposure, white balance, and color without degrading image quality. This is particularly useful for northern lights photography, where the dynamic range of the scene can be challenging to capture accurately in-camera.
JPEG Considerations: If you’re shooting in JPEG, be sure to get your settings as close to perfect in-camera as possible. JPEG files are compressed, meaning some data is lost during processing, which limits your ability to make adjustments later. However, JPEG files are much smaller than RAW files, which means you can fit more images on your memory card and process them more quickly. Shooting JPEG with a newer camera is also less of a challenge than just a few years ago since the built-in processing of the images is getting better and better.
Additional Tips
White Balance:Â If shooting in RAW, you can adjust white balance during post-processing. For JPEG, set your white balance to daylight or adjust the Kelvin (K) mode to values between 2800-4000 for optimal results.
Self-Timer or Remote: To avoid camera shake when pressing the shutter, use the self-timer or a remote control. Many modern cameras also have WiFi or Bluetooth capabilities, allowing you to control the shutter from your smartphone. Some remote releases also have intervalometer functions, which let you set up time-lapse sequences—a popular technique for capturing the movement of the auroras across the sky. If you don't have a remote, the self-timer function on your camera can serve the same purpose.
Mobile Phones and GoPro:Â While most smartphones may struggle to capture the northern lights, newer models like the iPhone 13 Pro can produce impressive results. For older phones, consider downloading a slow shutter app to gain manual control. GoPro cameras face similar challenges, but newer models can yield decent results in low-light conditions. Experiment with different settings to see what works best for your phone and the conditions.
Forecasting and Planning
Northern lights forecasting involves tracking solar activity, which can provide a reasonably accurate 27-day forecast. However, you’ll also need a reliable weather forecast to track clear skies. We recommend using the Norwegian app yr.no alongside windy.com. For real-time aurora forecasts, you can visit this link. There is a variety of different apps for tracking, weather, and photos, you just have to figure out what suits your needs.
Understanding Solar Activity: The northern lights are caused by solar winds interacting with the Earth’s magnetic field. Solar activity varies in cycles, and understanding these cycles can help you predict when the auroras will be most active. Websites like SpaceWeatherLive and NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center provide real-time updates on solar activity and aurora forecasts, helping you plan your shoots more effectively.
Local Weather Considerations:Â Even if solar activity is high, local weather conditions will determine whether you can see the auroras. Clear skies are essential, so use weather forecasting tools to track cloud cover. In addition to yr.no and windy.com, apps like Clear Outside provide detailed cloud cover predictions, helping you choose the best location and time for your shoot.
Aurora Alerts:Â To avoid missing a sudden aurora display, consider signing up for aurora alert services via apps or on Facebook. These services send notifications to your phone when there is increased aurora activity in your area. This can be particularly useful on nights when the auroras are forecasted to be weak, but a sudden increase in activity occurs.
Hot tip! If you book a tour the forecasting and planning are already taken care of by experienced guides and drivers.
All the best of luck!
Photographing the northern lights is as much about patience and preparation as it is about technique. Even with the best gear and settings, the aurora remains elusive and unpredictable. However, with practice and the right approach, you can capture stunning images that will make the cold and dark nights worthwhile.
Remember, photographing the northern lights is not just about getting the perfect shot; it’s about the experience of being out under the night sky, witnessing one of nature’s most incredible displays. Take the time to enjoy the moment, even if the conditions are challenging. The aurora has a way of making all the effort worthwhile. The more you shoot, the better you’ll get. Review your photos after each outing to see what worked and what didn’t. Don’t be afraid to experiment with different settings, compositions, and techniques. With time, you’ll develop your own style and approach to capturing the northern lights.
Whether you're a seasoned photographer or a beginner, the thrill of capturing the northern lights is an experience that never gets old. So, bundle up, keep your camera ready, and prepare for a night of wonder under the Arctic sky. If you have any questions, feel free to ask them below or in our Facebook group.
All the best of luck!
Helpful links:
Northern Lights statistics for Tromsø (half scientific).
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