How To Photograph The Northern Lights | EXPOSED
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 15 ต.ค. 2024
- How to Photograph the Northern Lights covers what lenses you'll need, exposure times, and ISO settings for how to best photograph the aurora borealis. It also covers how to focus at infinity and how to great night photography compositions. Please let us know what other How-To videos you'd like to see in the 'Comments' below.
I was in Iceland back in September and I'm so happy with how my Northern Lights photos turned out thanks to these awesome tips!
Was thinking about going this September to iceland.
How exciting!! Which camera & lens did you use to capture your shots of northern lights?
This is very helpful. My first attempt was pretty blurry and grainy, I look forward to trying again with your tips. Thank you.
Thanks so much for the tip(s) especially the exposure (under 30sec.) which is very handy to keep in mind. Also, perhaps another good tip for others is; try to shoot away from ambient lighting like that of the city lights. Traveling as far out of town as reasonably possible of course, will help!
Also, in Northern BC (and possibly Northern Alberta and Canada for that matter) where the Northern lights are more spectacular (naturally) It can get rather chilly after the sun sets and who knows when the Aura will display itself (no given exact time!) And when it gets cold outside, people have a tendency to start a small camp fire to keep warm and therefore creates an amber glow which could distort or distract. best to simply keep the car going - stay warm and then when the Northern lights show up, go outside to shoot. Don't forget to shut off the car so the headlights (another unwanted light source) does not effect your shooting. Just my 2 bits worth!
Hello John! It,s me again David from Mizoram. The northern you took a picture of is superb. Nature lovers are most blessed in experiencing the ecstacy of beholding these beauty it makes one feel blissed with suchs. Sensation I wish you post back to me soon wish you all the best in life
This is stuff that would have never occurred to a layperson. Thank you for explaining it so well to be easily understood. I'm saving this video.
Hi. I very much enjoyed your Northern Lights video. I'm going to Iceland soon, hopefully I'll see the Lights.
Outstanding video. All your videos are excellent. Thanks for sharing these helpful tips. Photographing the northern lights is definitely on my bucket list.
Thank you!
I’m heading to Iceland in two days and packing my Nikon D5600 and tripod to shoot the “northern lights.” Your tutorial is succinct and informative as I watched others that were unnecessary (and laboriously) too long.
i followed your instructions and got AMAZING photos of the northern lights in Iceland!
Hi, What time of the year were you iceland ? Where have you been able to see the lights ?
Planning a trip there, trying to figure out the optimal period for northern lights.
Any chance to see your photos ?
Thanks a lot
Thank you for the tips. That's my dream vacation being able to photograph one the most beautiful phenomenon in our planet
Okay this is more or less like the Milky Way shoot… We are going to northern Alaska next week! I can’t wait to see and do this in person!! 🤩
Which camera and lense did you use
Yes! I'd love to see advice on how to shoot orcas from shore. I've been shooting on autofocus with a 75-300mm zoom and the coloring can get very off in photos. Thanks for this northern lights tutorial!
I photographed the northern lights with my Huawei p40pro and they turned out great!
Last night I saw them in Thurso and it was a good display. Its amazing how the Huawei p40pro smartphone can shoot the northern lights.
Seeing the northern lights is something you'll never forget! Huawei p40pro is a professional camera and I'm so impressed with it even for astrophotography!
I bet you have alot of fun photographing the northern lights. Mother nature's greatest show!
What camera are you using? I don’t anything about photography but would love to get into astrophotography, specifically that of Northern Lights and Aurora Borealis
Love this . Thank you !!!
Really amazing tutorial. everything is explained in detail. Thank you!
Thanks!
What lodge were you at for this video ? Trying to get up to that area; northern lights are on my bucket list.
I'm in my bedroom laying on my bed watching this and I can see aurora from my window atm :D
Excellent photo and timelaps, thanks for good tips. Will be used in Northern Norway
Great Video! Straight up. Going to the Artic next week and this will definitely come in handy. Thanks!
Great video John, all your tips are noted especially with regards to focussing - Thanks for sharing! I'm planning a trip for November just deciding on the best place to go? All the best.
Thank you for a really great video. It helped me a lot, as I am starting astro/night and Northen Light photography,do you have any recommendations for a fast wide angle lens? I also have a Canon 5D MK IV, cheers.
Great info. I always read to use your camera's lowest ISO for northern lights shots. I took some in Iceland at ISO 200 which required 30 second exposures. Can you comment on the trade off of High ISO/6s exposure vs. my 200ISO/30s exposure? Going to Fairbanks AK for the Sept 22 equinox and want to be prepared!
Thank you. time lapse was very helpful.
Can you explain the interval part? If I use a shutter speed of 5 seconds and interval of 7 seconds, will it be okay? And delay of 2 seconds to avoid camera shakes. F 2.8/ iso 2500/ shutter speed 5 seconds/ interval 7 seconds/ delay 2 seconds and the number of photos I’ll set to - for as long as 16gb of memory can take. What is your suggestion on these settings? It is my first time so I need some guidance. This is what I felt would be okay but I need an expert’s advice on the time lapse. Also 24fps I’ll be shooting. If I had to set a time like 10 seconds time lapse for 24 fps, then how much should be the interval and delay ? Thanks again.
Watching this while stuck with my iphone camera 🙄.
Great tips by the way 🙂
Excellent simple and sweet informative video.
Thank you for video! Going to photograph them tonight :)
Thank you so much for this! You have a new subscriber. Hello from Alaska. 👋
That was wonderful John. Thanks for sharing this video with us - Loving the time lapses!
Thanks Jo-Ann!
Excellent tutorial. I’m heading the Arctic Norway 🇳🇴 next week and this will help. Thank you.
I would love another tutorial, it was so cool and well explained !! Thank you for your vids John.
Hallo John, Wann warst Du da? Wir fliegen näschte Woche nach Island, hoffen wir kriegen cool Fotos! Danke für den Tipps.
Tolles Infos hier - Folgt!
Excellent tips. Thank you.
Which lens in particular do you use to shoot the Aurora? And is it possible to manually focus at infinity with an STM lens?
very good tutorial , how to take Aurora photography. thnak you very much
Beautiful !!!
my wightest Lens is to 18mm. f3.5. will this do?
Thanks for the video - I plan on visiting Iceland in February... fingers crossed!
1- Which 2.8 Lens did you use? I'm thinking of getting Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8. I have an APC-S Canon 70D. I can't afford full frame right now
2- You said you set up 110 pictures - how did you do that?
If your camera doesn't have a "timelapse" setting most people use a remote shutter that has that capability
Great vid! Going to Iceland and hope to capture some pics of the northern lights myself.
Great video! Thanks for the tips. Any advice on trying to take a photo with people infront of the northern lights?
Outstanding, very informative. I am going to upgrade to a Nikon D5, any suggestions, such as best place to buy, lens, etc. Again, Thank you
Hello how are you doing?
i would like to to see more tutorials like that! This video is very good!
P.S. I am from Germany
Thanks for the tips I am going to try these in the North of Sweden :D
Hope they work out for you.
Thank you John for sharing, I'd so like to travel north, anywhere in the US to try my hand at capturing the northern lights. Which I have never seen! Maybe here some day soon.
Have you thought of Alaska? I think you'll enjoy the views there. All the best in the quest!
Very useful information here, and outstanding images! Thanks for sharing!
Great video. I would LOVE to see you do a how to video on shooting whitetail deer, particularly bucks. They can be extremely illusive & skittish. Where I’m from (S Louisiana) your best chances of seeing 1 is at dusk or dawn when the light is the lowest. It’s difficult getting close to them, making a large telephoto lens a must. It’s extremely challenging getting quality photos of these animals. Any tips on equipment, setup, etc would be amazing. Thanks
Great video, looking forward to checking out more. My friend and I are brand new to the DSLR world and there are no local classes in our small Alaskan town.
We've got a bunch more How-Tos in the pipe.
Thanks mate ! :) Im in Senja north nowray and ll try your tips tonight :) just with basic canon 750D
Thank you! Love to more advice on how to shoot wildlife!
This is a really interesting video and I'm going next January. Just out of interest though - don't you find that having an ISO at 2500 would have far too much noise in the image? I have tried Astrophotography before with ISO 2000 and 20 seconds on the shutter - and the pictures are always far too grainy. Also which F2.8 lens are you using on the 5D?
Totally depends on what camera you're using. I'm using the Zeiss 21mm 2.8 on the 5D.
Very nice work! Informative too.
whats the right setting for timelapse? thanks hope you can help me im using nikon d5600 thanks alot!! God Bless
Hey, im an absolute ignorant in terms of photography. I have no pro camera, they are way TOO expensive here. Is it possible at all to capture aurora borealis with an iPhone X? If possible, i know the results will be poor, but still, possible? I heard its possible if you take the "live" photos and then edit them as Long Exposure mode.
Great video btw
Buddy an entry level DSLR costs 1/3 of your phone.....
Never use my flip 4 camera. Fir night shooting. Will b chasing the lights in norway. N 2 weeks time. Is it worth buying n extra lens fir it
Great instructions, unbelievable video's! thanks!
since you mentioned it...any tips on taking photos of orcas? i will be on on a rib boat as well as snorkeling with them for 2 days in andenes norway in january
Nice tutorial!!! Very very nice! Can you please tell me what is the music beginning at 3.49 its so so cooooool!
wow looks amazing I got a Panasonic Lumix FZ330 whats the best setting on my camera to capture the Aurora Borealis? I went to Iceland Last year it was cloudy the whole time missed out on seeing them I am off to Norway next friday in Tromso really hope I see them then.
Just follow those tips from above and you should be good to go.
What did you have your intervals set at for shooting??
Please help. I'm buying a cannon R5 and not sure what lense to buy for these results I'm going in October to photograph and I'm so lost of the specific lense that would be best for this? Is there a certain name for the lense ?
My method of getting the most natural colors in the aurora is making a preset for 2800-3000 kelvin in white balance. Drasticly lower or colder than my Sony a7r reads. My camera is also reading white balance wildly different between setups. All from 3400-4000 kelvin. All way off in my opinion. My sweet spot in white balance for aurora borealis is 2850kelvin. I just set that value in lightroom, but I guess it is better to set that value in camera. The picture turns out cleaner and brighter and artificial light also does not make this terrible orange haze all over if Im shooting close to my town. First and foremost the auroras look the same or very simular in my photos as with my bare eyes. This is a recent discovery after a little research.
Hi John. I'm organising a Northern Lights hunting trip in Norway in November and I want to capture it with my Nikon D3300.
Right now I've got a 18-55 f/3.5. Do you think it should work or it is necessary a f 2.8 lens?
Thanks for the advice and congrats for the very well done video.
Flavio S have a tripod and you’ll be fine
Would like to ask you for the best and correct settings to take photos and videos of the Northern Lights like this in Finland. I may use GoPro Hero 5 Black which I am very new to. Please kindly share and advise.
Thanks for the tips - Believe that Jasper is not bad place to be for the northern lights . At least thats what I read. So going to try with your tips
Will be there in MArch. Hope its not too late
Hello how are you doing?
Any suggestions for a lodge or places in the Yukon where I can get some northern lights shots over a lake or large pond? Have been in Yukon 3 times in fall and once we did some photos of the Aurora over Kluane lake. Looking for a few suggestions, thanks.
I've been treated to some great shows at fish lake
@@cooper4590 Thanks for the info !
thank you I am going to use these tips when I go to Alaska
Thanks for the tips! Very useful!
thanks i did enjoy it, really.
you increased the items in my bucket list
greeting from north California.
Mr. Frank
Thank you for this video! I am going to Lapland in March and the focussing on infinity part is what freaks me out the most. I am so scared that I am júst off by a milimeter and my photos will be all out of focus.
thanks for the tips! I'm up in Churchill Mb trying to shoot the northern lights and this should help a lot
Do these tips apply for analogue photography as well?
I like your video, that's really an amazing northern lights.
Great video, thanks for these tips.
Hi John, thank you for the video! The footage looks amazing! Quick question about your interval timer settings. You've mentioned that you have a 6 seconds exposure and a 2 second interval. Do you maybe mean an 8 second interval? I also shoot with a MK IV and when I shoot night time-lapses and set the camera to a 6 second exposure after 3 or 4 exposures the camera would get into "BUSY" mode and wait to finish processing before taking another shot, therefore cause a delay. Do you have a way to bypass that in the settings? or did you mean a longer interval? (I use a 2.8 16-35mm L, with extreme pro 94mb/s sandisk SD card). Thanks in advance!
New with all of this! How do you even get to the settings on setting up the exposure and video like he did?
hello I will be shooting with a Canon 6D mark ii can I use the same settings
Great job guys!
Thanks Pat! Those time lapses turned out pretty good, eh!
Ok question I have a 17 to 40 mm f4 so too slow ? or I have a 50 mm f1.8 is that too long ?Which one would you go with. OR would you say try them both and see.
What camera are you using?
I enjoyed this and thanks for the tips on how to shoot infinity.
Thank you, hope the tips are working for you.
interesting... I shoot it with a much smaller aperture, lower ISO and longer shutter speeds. star trails aren't noticeable and it's easier to get the landscape in focus
Interesting!
I live in the northernmost town of Iceland. siglufjordur, a few kilometers from the arctic circle. Being an amateur photographer I naturally photgraph the Aurora Borealis, seen frequently here from late october to late march. One of my greatest concerns is to find the right white balance or right kelvin to shoot in. The light frequency of the Aroras are quite out of any mesures of the camera and it's nearly hopeless to get a right reading in darkness. Thus the lights appear much greener than seen, although other color casts do get closer to reality. What I am curious about is what your preferred white balance is. The lights though appear a little overly green in your pictures. I try to make them look as natural as I can and always fiddle with the green and aqua sliders in Lightroom. What are your thoughts on this?
Auroras have very varying charachteristics and behaviours, and are practicly never the same from night to night, so it might be difficult to name any silver bullet setting for this.
Yes, white balance is definitely a struggle to hone in on the one that best mimics what we actually see in the sky.
Is it possible to photograph Northern Light with "Panasonic LUMEX LX-100 II", also with people in the picture?
Great video! Thnx
What kind of camera do you have? A DSLR?
Do you think its possible to photograph northern lights with a f 4.0 lense?
It totally is. You just need to bump up the iso a bit or lower the shutter speed
Hi there! What kind of lens were you using??
Is there a benefit to shooting a shorter exposure/higher iso vs using the 500 rule that would give you an exposure up to 24sec before you get star trails and dropping the iso?
Not necessarily, in fact, shorter exposures can sometimes give you poorer definition in the lights, it just totally depends on how strong the light show is. Sometimes I do way shorter exposures down to 0.5 seconds, sometimes I do long ones.
What lens did you use and at what distance?
I am planing a trip to Iceland, if I get lucky I will be able to see the Northern Lights, I bought a Nikon D3400, and was checking the lens, and they don’t have infinity mode, how can I take the pictures. Thank you so much for your videos, I really appreciate you take the time to explain, what for some people is easy for me it is level five. thank you.
Just make a mark on your lens when you focus at something far away and then at night move your focus to that mark and turn off AF.
Of you have your aperture right up there at 2.8 and focus on 'infinity', do you not end up with a blurred foreground?
I have a suggestion,... I would like to see you present at the Summit in Banff! ;-)
Haha, indeed!
Hello, John, thank you so much for sharing this. This all was made with Time Lapse - Can you imagine to get a high quality result with the video programm of the EOS 700D ? Only in APSC Format and with the Canon lense 10-18mm, 1:4.5-5.6 ? Thank you for a response ;-) We'll visit Norway in March and hope to see the Northern Lights - we're dreaming about every night ;-)
Good luck!!
I have a Canon 80D.
What settings can I use to actually film the Northern lights instead of doing time lapse photography?
Many thanks
You can't film them with that camera.
I really want to see the Northern Lights so am booked on a trip with the Hurtigruten (Norways Coastal Ferries) which will be beautiful. Unfortunately for photographing them with the need for a tripod and long exposures I won't be able to get this from a moving boat!
Brilliant Tutorial. TFS.
I am new to photography and am heading to Finland in three weeks to (hopefully) see the Northern Lights and have just discovered your tutorial
I have a Canon EOS 80D Camera with just the kit lens. This obviously wont cut it to photograph the lights. Do you have a suggestion regarding which particular lens to purchase? Arghhhh - I need to urgently purchase a lens!!!
Wendy Murray I would suggest a wide angle or ultra wide angle lens 14-20mm with low aperature value, like 1.4 or 2.8 to keep the exposure time as low as you can without overcranking the iso. Those lenses are expensive from canon but you can get a third party lens for much less, with good quality. My lens to go is Samyang (rokinon) 14mm f2.8. A sharp and easy to handle, manual lens that costs just around $300.
Auroras move around, so if you have your exposure too long, you will just get green smears and no textures to the lights. It is all about short exposure time to freeze the ribbons of light, without ruining your picture with noise from a high iso setting.
Thank you. I have been and come back. Ended up buying a lens. Had one kind of good showing of the lights. Got some photos and even managed to do a timelapse.
Learnt heaps but wanted to make sure i saw the lights with my eyes...not just thru a lens since this was a 'once in a lifetime trip' .....Famous last words. Im going back.
Im pleased with the pics i got but know more for next time. Sooooo much fun!!!
Awesome!! Keep at it Wendy, it's a great way to spend your nights under the stars!
Hello sir, I have a Nikon d3400 with kit lens 18-55mm. Can I photographed northern lights from this camera? Or what is the camera settings for northern lights photography?
Hi. Short answer : Yes you can.
You can photograph northern lights with pretty much any DSLR.
The kit lens (18-55mm) isn't an ideal option (not very wide and not very fast) but you can still get pretty amazing pictures with it.
What you absolutely need is a tripod and idealy a remote shutter release so that the camera doesnt vibrate when you press and release the shutter with your hand (the photo willr be shaky if you do it with your hand)
As for settings, you need to make sure your focus is sharp and as he said in the video, he used an exposure of 6", you may need to use a longer exposure time because his lens is very fast (aperture of 2.8) and thus lets in a lot more light than yours (probably around 3.5).
An advice : take time to try, experiment, learn how to use your camera and play around with the settings
There is nothing worse than being under northern lights and spending your time trying to fix the camera settings instead of enjoying what's happening up there !
Are you planning a trip to see the northern lights soon ? Where ?
Have a great time anyway ;)
Thanks for your answer. Yes, I have a planning trip to see the northern lights in this December. In abisko national park, sweden. Right now I am staying in Stockholm.
I am going to Iceland in a week with the Sony A6300. Any suggestions for my settings?
Hello how are you doing?
Great video
Thanks...nice tips