How to photograph the northern lights
One of mother natures most spectacular and beautiful sights has to be the wonderful displays of the Aurora Borealis and Aurora Australis. Watching the ribbons of green and pink dancing around the sky is both an exciting and emotional experience. Chasing them is even more of an adrenaline rush, and here’s how to photograph them.
The aurora’s are caused when solar winds ejected from the surface of the sun collide with the magnetic fields of Earth. They are stronger near Earths polar regions, where the magnetic pull is strongest, and the electrically charged molecules interact with gasses found high up in the thermosphere causing the varying colours.
So how do you know when there will be a display? Aurora displays are often difficult to predict, and can appear out of nowhere and disappear just as quick. Generally, if there has been a large solar storm observed then there is a chance of a large aurora display during the following days. You also need to be somewhere dark and away from any light pollution, ideally on a night where the moon isn’t visible. Though sometime you can use the moon to illuminate your foreground, especially when during a strong display.
There are several websites available that give predictions and forecasts of possible auroras, and two that I like to use are Glendale Aurora Watch and Space Weather Prediction Centre. Once you have learned how to read the forecasts it makes photographing the aurora that much easier. The Kp index is a good indicator of how strong an aurora display is likely to be and how far south it will be visible. It uses a scale of 1 to 9 with the higher the number indicating the more likely that an aurora will be visible and away from the polar regions. A Kp index of 5 or 6 is required for the aurora to be visible from UK for example.
Once you have the forecast figured out and you have found yourself a possible composition the next step is getting set up ready. As you are going to be using long exposures the most important piece of equipment you will need is a good sturdy tripod, and one that I can recommend is Vanguard’s Veo 3T+ 264CB carbon fibre tripod with it’s multi angle central column and 15kg load capacity. When you have your camera mounted on your tripod, you are going to want to use a wide angle lens with a wide aperture such as Sigma’s 14-24mm f2.8 DG DN Art lens to fit in your foreground and sky. Set the aperture as wide as as the lens will go to allow for maximum light through the glass and onto the camera sensor.
Once you have your composition set the next step is to set your focus. With it being so dark when it comes to photographing the aurora, there are two methods of setting focus. The first is to use the focus scale and set your lens to infinity and the second is to use the Live View function, zoom in on a distant light on the horizon or a bright star in the sky and adjust focus until it becomes nice and sharp. Once you have set focus, lock it off by turning autofocus off on either the lens or your camera body. Remember to keep checking focus hasn’t moved and if it has just repeat the steps above,
As the aurora isn’t a static object and constantly changes in the sky, you are going to need to use a shutter speed of between 6 and 10 seconds. But it is worth experimenting with faster and longer shutter speeds depending on how strong and how much movement is in the aurora. Again, as it will be dark when you capture the aurora you are going to have to compensate by using a high ISO setting. It’s not uncommon to see ISO’s of 1600 and even 3200 being used during night photography and any noise that is introduced as a result can easily be dealt with when editing your image in your chosen software.
If you don’t have a camera where you can take full manual control all is not lost. You can still photograph the aurora by using your smart phone and turning on the night mode. The technology built into modern smart phones you can capture stunning images at night and hand held! However you can also use a micro tripod designed specifically for smart phones like the Vanguard Vesta Mini tripod to give that extra bit of stability to your shots.
Whatever camera you have, or even if you don’t have a camera, experiencing the aurora is a very special experience and one that will stay with you for a very long time. You may even become hooked on chasing the aurora….
