Some time ago I wrote about northern lights, also called as Aurora Borealis. Northern lights are very common in northern hemisphere, especially in the area I come from, Lapland in Finland. I grew up above the Arctic Circle and I am used to see lots of northern lights. Few times I have seen a corona which has been absolutely awesome, a stunning moment. My best northern light experience was in New Year’s Eve in 2002. I saw a corona that was so incredibly big, white and shiny that most probably I will never see such a northern light anymore. Anyhow, I love northern lights. They are really interesting and fascinating phenomena.

As I promised in the title, let’s talk about how to photograph northern lights. What is needed in order to capture northern lights? First of all you need a camera. I am an old-school photographer and I own a Canon EOS 5 35 mm. body. It is not the best one for shooting northern lights because it is made of plastic. It can easily get damaged in -25-40 celcius degrees. I would say that the less plastic and the less moving parts your camera has, the better it is for photographing northern lights. Although I use an “old-school” camera, the following tips and tricks are applicable in digital photographing as well.

Next thing you need is optics. I recommend you to purchase an objective with 24 mm angle lens and lens aperture at least 2.0, preferably 1.4. This objective should not be a zoom, just a fixed lens. A zoom is not good idea because most probably you would not need it. A fixed lens is good because usually there is no time to adjust your zoom. If your objective has lens aperture bigger than 2.0, your photographs will not be too good quality. An objective with lens aperture 1.4 is very expensive but worth of purchasing.

When photographing northern lights, the shutter is usually open dozens of seconds. Therefore you absolutely need a tripod. Find a good quality tripod which is stable and quick to adjust. Setting and adjusting your tripod must not take many seconds because northern lights move quickly. I recommend SLIK tripods with a balloon head.

When you go shooting northern lights, it is most probably very cold out there. Remember to take at least two batteries and keep them in your pocket so that they would not loose energy. The second battery is needed because the first one may soon be empty.

The film should be a slide film when photographing with an ordinary SLR. I have used Fuji Provia and Velvia with ASA 400 to 200. It is difficult to say which films would be the best one. I recommend you to start with those I mentioned, and as soon as you get your first pictures, evaluate their quality and try some other films next time to see the difference. When photographing the northern lights, keep you shutter open between 5-30 seconds, depending on the sensitivity and type of your film. This is an area you really need to experiment by yourself. Just to mention, if you keep the shutter open more than 30 seconds, you start to see the star trails appearing.

A couple of other tips and tricks for photographing northern lights are that use a cable release and do not use a camera belt. A cable release is needed in order to keep your camera stable when releasing the shutter. A camera belt, the one you use to carry your camera, is just useless when photographing northern lights. Just keep it away; it is much easier without it.

What would be a summary? Pick up a good quality body, a high quality lens with lens aperture between 1.4-2.0. Use high quality film with a low ASA and do not keep the shutter open for too long time. Read HomeboyAstronomy.Com, read other sources of information and experiment various ways to photograph northern lights. Certainly this was not all, and I probably forgot to mention something. In that case, please point it out by leaving a message. I would say this is the information you need when you are starting photographing northern lights. Later on you will need more information.

Oh, I almost forgot to mention. It is cold out there when photographing northern lights. Remember to wear enough clothes!