How to photograph the northern lights

Prepare for a dark scene

Start with a stable support. The Canadian Space Agency's photography guidance recommends a tripod and suggests composing with both the sky and foreground. You do not need to fill the frame with aurora alone: a simple tree line, shoreline or recognizable landscape gives the display a sense of scale.

Set up before you are rushed by a changing sky. Find the camera controls you will need, make sure you can operate them while dressed for the weather, and take a test photograph. Pack a spare battery if you have one, keep your lens clean, and avoid aiming across a nearby bright light.

With a camera, make one change at a time

If your camera supports manual exposure, open the aperture, choose a short multi-second exposure, and adjust sensitivity until a test frame has useful detail. These are starting choices to experiment with, not universal settings. Different lenses, cameras, moonlight and auroral brightness can require very different exposures.

Check focus by enlarging a bright star in a test image or live view. A lens marking near infinity is a starting point rather than proof of sharp focus. If stars look soft, solve that before changing every exposure setting. When the aurora moves quickly, try a shorter exposure to retain structure; lengthening the exposure collects more light but also blends motion.

With a phone, keep it still

Use your phone's low-light controls if available, support it steadily, and try its timer so touching the shutter does not shake the image. Compare a few exposures rather than assuming the longest night mode is best. If the image is blurred, distinguish movement in the sky from movement of the phone.

Avoid judging color only from a bright screen in the dark. Review a sample later at a normal screen brightness. You can improve your framing on the next attempt; it is harder to recover a photograph that was out of focus throughout the outing.

Understand why photos look different

A camera can record faint auroral colors more readily than your eyes, and a long exposure combines light over time. A subdued glow may therefore look much more colorful in an image. That difference does not mean the photograph is a literal preview of what a first-time observer will see.

Keep a few notes about the conditions and settings you tried. They will make your next outing easier than copying a number from an unrelated photograph. Put the camera down occasionally, watch the changing display, and avoid shining lights toward other observers while you adjust your equipment.

Common questions