How to Photograph the Northern Lights the Right Way

There’s hardly anything more magical than seeing the Northern Lights dancing across the sky for the very first time — and of course, I wanted to capture that exact feeling in my photos. But before my trip, I first had to figure out how to photograph them properly: for stunning aurora shots, you’ll ideally want a full-frame camera paired with a fast wide-angle lens between 14–24 mm and an aperture of around f/1.4 to f/2.8. You should also photograph the Northern Lights in full manual mode. A good starting point is ISO 1600–3200 with a shutter speed between 1 and 10 seconds, depending on how active the aurora is (3–10 seconds for calm, faint Northern Lights and 1–3 seconds for fast-moving, active auroras). You’ll also want to focus manually instead of simply turning the lens all the way to infinity. To achieve natural-looking green and purple tones, I recommend setting your white balance to around 3500–4000 K — and of course, always shoot in RAW. For more atmospheric images, try incorporating an interesting foreground like mountains, water, or little cabins. And don’t underestimate the cold: batteries lose power surprisingly fast in freezing temperatures. You should also definitely bring gloves that still allow you to operate your camera comfortably!

Another absolute essential is a sturdy tripod along with either a remote shutter release or the 2-second timer to avoid camera shake. You should also turn off image stabilization (IBIS/OIS) during long exposures, since it can actually introduce small movements. Make sure to check your histogram every now and then so your images don’t end up too dark — slightly underexposing your shots between –0.3 and –1 EV often helps preserve the aurora’s vibrant colors even better.