Seeing the northern lights can be a life-changing experience. If you do get lucky enough to spot the aurora, you’ll want to make sure you’re prepared to take the best photos you can to share with family and friends!
We know a lot of you are experts (we see you on Instagram!) so if you already know what we’re about to cover, feel free to skip on down to the next post. But, if you’re not an expert--this is for you!
What to Know First
Probably the first--and most important--thing to remember is that tripods are a necessity. If you want to get a good aurora photo, whether you’re shooting on a camera or on a phone, you need a tripod!
It definitely doesn’t have to be fancy (this one from Amazon is under $25) but it does have to keep your phone still through a low-light, long exposure. If you’re planning on using a smartphone, don’t forget a smartphone adapter for your tripod, too.
Okay. With that in mind, here are the best ways to photograph the aurora using any device!
iPhone
For all iPhones except the iPhone 11 Pro, we recommend downloading the NightCap Camera app. iPhones come with great cameras that are capable of taking good aurora photographs, but unfortunately, don’t give you the ability to go in and change the camera settings.
The NightCap app allows you to take great nighttime photos. The app will bypass manual camera control to automatically optimize your settings for low-light and long-exposure shots that will best showcase the natural beauty of the northern lights.
Android Phones
Most recent Android phones (especially Samsungs, Pixels, and Huaweis) are fairly easy to configure to take decent photos of the aurora. The basics for setting your phone are as follows:
Set your ISO to 800, or the highest setting
Set your F-stop to 10, or what’s labeled as 1.5
Set the Manual Focus (MF) as high as possible (slide it all the way to the right).
(Make sure your camera is “flipped” the right way! Selfies in “aurora mode” probably won’t turn out so great.)
If you have an older phone model, or are having trouble navigating your phone settings, make sure you download a pro camera app before you arrive in Coldfoot. We don’t want you to miss out on great shots--it’s better to be safe than sorry!
Point-and-Shoot Cameras
Point-and-shoot cameras can vary in terms of quality. The most important thing to check is whether your point-and-shoot camera has a manual setting--if it does, the process for setting your camera up will be a lot like the Android steps above.
Here’s a great guide to setting your camera (with a manual setting) to shoot the aurora!
DSLR Cameras
A DSLR camera has a lot more settings--and greater capabilities--than your average camera, especially when you’re shooting something as specific as the aurora.
Here, it might be good to do a little bit of poking around to familiarize yourself with your camera’s settings before you visit. Playing around with the manual options before crunch time can help you feel more confident in getting shots you can be proud of while you’re here.
But, we won’t reinvent the wheel. Here are a couple of good guides that professional photographers have put together on aurora photography with DSLR cameras.
They offer great tips on setting all types of cameras, and even walk you through the photo-editing process afterwards:
Too Much Work?
Intimidated by trying to work out all the right settings? Does all of this sound like way too much work? Accidentally forget your extra SD card?
If you’d rather leave your camera at home, you’re in luck!
Your aurora guide will bring a camera with them to take photos throughout the evening. You can let them know at the end of your viewing if you’re interested in purchasing those photos, and you can get a USB drive with all the photos of that night’s display.
We do want to make sure that you know this isn’t a get-rich scheme, like the photos they make you take at theme parks then sell back to you at the end.
We simply want to make sure you leave with the memories of your aurora viewing experience!
Now that you’re all set to photograph the aurora on any device, check out our guide on what to wear and bring aurora-watching, or view the rest of our aurora series on the Coldfoot blog!