Photographing the aurora
Starting settings for a camera and for a phone, and why photos show more than your eyes.
A camera collects light for seconds at a time, so it picks up colour and faint aurora your eyes can't. A few settings make the difference.
With a camera
- A tripod or anything steady. Exposures last several seconds.
- A wide lens opened as far as it goes: f/2.8 or wider if you have it.
- Manual focus at infinity. Set it in daylight and mark the lens, or focus on a bright star.
- ISO 1600 to start; go up to 3200 or more for faint aurora, down for bright.
- Exposure 5 to 15 seconds. Shorter when the aurora is moving fast, so the curtains stay sharp; longer when it's faint and still.
- White balance around 3500 K, or auto. Shoot RAW if you can, so you can adjust later.
- Turn off the flash and lens stabilisation on the tripod.
Take a test shot, look at it, and adjust: brighter or darker with the exposure time or ISO.
With a phone
- Use night mode and the main lens, not the wide or zoom lens.
- Hold the phone against something solid, or use a small tripod. Any movement blurs the shot.
- Tap to focus on the sky and lower the brightness slider a little if the photo comes out washed out.
- Turn on Night mode in Polar Lights while you shoot, so the screen doesn't spoil your night vision. See Night mode and language.
Tips
- Give your eyes 20 minutes in the dark, away from street lights. Looking at a white screen undoes it.
- Include a foreground, a tree, a mountain or a building, for a sense of scale.
- Cold drains batteries. Keep spares in an inside pocket.
- Post it. Share your best shots in the gallery.