Capturing the aurora aka the polar lights, northern lights, or the aurora borealis, whatever you want to call the display is not quite as easy as you think. The dancing light show with an array of swirls and flares with vibrant colors, a star studded backdrop, and endless patterns of greens, magentas, reds and purples are even more impressive in person. However, getting focus at night, making sure you have the right settings, working your camera dials (in the dark and cold) etc.. can be daunting, especially with so much going on and the excitement of capturing it all.
My gear:
Camera, I used my- Sony A 1 Mirrorless Digital Camera but you could use whatever camera you have, I do prefer a full frame sensor, one that is good in low light conditions.
Wide angle lens f/2.8 - I used my Sony FE 12-24mm f/2.8 lens
Sturdy Tripod - I used my Induro GIT304L Grand Series 3 Stealth Carbon Fiber Tripod but any sturdy tripod will do.
Flex-Shooter Pro mini Arca Ballhead, or any ballhead will do, I liked the flexibility and freedom of movement I had with the Flex -Shooter head.
My settings: (I do vary them, depending on conditions)
Manual mode—everything in manual mode
Manual focus
Aperture- f/2.8
ISO 1000- that is my staring point, but I do change it depending on the light intensity and how dark the area is.
Shutter speed- this varies depending on how fast the lights are moving. If the aurora is fast moving I speed up my shutter speed. If it is slow moving I slow down my shutter which allows me to reduce my ISO.
Fast moving- 3-10 seconds (these are approximate)
Slow moving 10-20 seconds, I don’t go slower than 20 seconds as the stars will start to blur.
White Balance- I like my Kelvins set to 3500 but you can decide what you like, it is a variable that can be changed in post processing so don’t panic if you forget to do it in the field.
It is important to practice on a night sky in your backyard before going out to shoot the aurora. This is really important as you need to be able to acquire focus in the dark. If your camera has focus peaking you may want to enable it. You will need to know where your camera setting are and be able to change them in the dark with gloves on. You don’t want to spoil other’s images by using a flashlight to see the back of your camera every few minutes.
The most important thing to do in the field, is to take a test shot, magnify your capture and check for sharpness. Also, check your histogram.
Post processing for me starts in Lightroom. I work in the basic adjustment area and tweak it the best I can globally. Then, I bring the image into Photoshop, duplicate my layer, and bring it into Camera Raw (aka-back into LR) and make more selective adjustments. I add a bit of contrast, clarity and a small amount of dehaze— if needed but be careful with that adjustment as too much creates a vignette and adds noise and can create a garish look. I add noise reduction as most of these night images get a bit noisy. After I save my Tiff file, I create a jpeg then I sharpen the jpeg for the web. For the image above I had to use the Transform tool to straighten out the buildings as I pulled up on my lens too much. The lens correction in LR didn’t work as well.
*The aurora borealis is visible from areas around the Arctic but can on rare occasions be seen in part of the US. The lights are the result of disturbances in the magnetosphere. You can read more about them here if you like.
Join me in Lofoten, Norway in 2025 for my next Aurora workshop. JANUARY 31- FEBRUARY 7, 2025