The Aurora Borealis is just awesome to witness. You can watch it twisting and turning, dancing across the sky. You see it in your dreams for a long time afterwards. And it is something that is on a lot of peoples bucket lists!!
But it is also important to know, the colours you see all across the internet are not what you see with your eyes. The colours are more muted. It is in camera the real magic happens.
The reason for this is that the camera is open for several seconds so it lets in more colour and light.
Regardless, it is still an amazing phenomenon to witness. The stronger the aurora, the more colour you see.
In this newsletter I will discuss how to capture it in camera. And encourage you not to wait too long before you tick it off your bucket list.
The following information is based on the timing of our tour in September. If you are travelling at other times of the year you obviously need to take into consideration the season, the weather, the moon and the midnight sun (you wont see it if you go at a time when the sun is up all day and night!!).
Seeing the aurora is never guaranteed. But when we go to Lofoten in September, we are in the best place should the lady decide to show. We also hope there is no veil of cloud to cover her. Although scattered cloud can still produce some amazing windows of viewing and provide some very cool photos.
We are going to Norway at a time when it is close to the equinox. This is when the aurora is most active!
Have a look at the timelapse I captured at Hamnoy, Lofoten. Hamnoy is one of the places we are definitely going to. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lgd4A6lzAXg
So what does it look like?
To the eye you will see it moving and dancing but you wont see the bright green. It is more of a muted green. And sometimes shades of muted pink and red. It is in camera that the real magic happens. As the camera captures a longer time than our eye, the colour really shows through. The Aurora tends to come in waves. It will arc up and die down. Then if you are lucky, it will arc up again and maybe even stronger. Sometimes it doesn't produce the dancing ribbons and will just be an awesome green sky - like the last two pictures in the video. It still looks amazing.
So how do you capture the Aurora Borealis?
I want to make sure you can get this down pat so that you will be able to set up, have your camera working with a remote so you can sit back and enjoy the show. It is an amazing thing to witness so you dont want to be spending all the time fiddling with your tripod or camera and not having the time to just look at the amazing spectacle. It is something you will see in your dreams for a long time afterwards.
If you have been lucky enough to photograph Aurora Australis, you will find Aurora Borealis a completely different challenge to photograph. It moves fast!!! And it is much brighter.
You will be surprised to know that the images in the video were only 5 seconds. That is because it was moving so fast. If I had it set for 20 seconds - like we do for the night sky or Aurora Australis in Victoria, the green would not have its ribbon shape. It would just be a blur of green. So to capture the shape of the moving aurora, you need to have a much shorter time.
The first thing to do it set your camera up on a tripod. It needs to be stable and still.
Set up your composition. Remember - composition is just as important for night shots as it is for day time.
Set your camera to manual mode and your focus to manual focus.
Focus to infinity. If you have stars, use your live view, magnify 10X on a planet (it doesn't twinkle) and manually focus until that planet is the smallest pinpoint. This video shows you the process and I want you to practice it before we go away so it is second nature to you. It is also an important way to ensure your landscape photos are perfectly in focus. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VozjPnHW6fc
The settings will obviously depend on the brightness of the aurora, the moonlight and ambient settings.
I want you to practice the following. (First with the room lights on - then with the lights off)
Set up your tripod in the dark. Yep - practice at home in a room with the lights turned off. Put your camera on your tripod in landscape orientation. Now take off your camera and put it on your tripod in portrait orientation. Practice until it becomes second nature.
If you have a remote trigger, attach it to your camera. I strongly suggest you get some sort of trigger so you can push a button at the same time as you are enjoying the show!
Dont be scared about this one. You dont have to know what settings you need - but you DO need to work out how to change them. Again in the dark. Turn your camera into manual mode. Turn your focus to manual focus. Change your ISO (I go by braille - mine is the third button on the top from left to right). Change your speed setting. Change your f stop. Dont worry about the settings yet. It just will help you enormously if you can do it in the dark. Work out what buttons you have to push and where they are on your camera. Practice until it becomes second nature.
Refer to your manual if you are having trouble. You know - that booklet that no-one reads! lol. Every camera is different. Every camera has its buttons in different places.
What settings do I start with?
To start with I suggest you dial in the following and then you will need to adjust up and down from there depending on the brightness of the aurora.ISO 800
F stop/aperture - as wide open as you can go (eg f2.8)
Speed - 5 seconds (5")
I would suggest you reduce your ISO if the aurora becomes brighter.
Aurora Photos with a phone
Not everyone coming has a camera, but everyone has a phone! So if you want to take aurora photos with your phone you need to check the following.
On your phone, have a look at what modes it has. Most have "portrait", "panorama" etc but look for where it says "pro".
Go to this section and put it the following settings;
Flash set to off
8 seconds
ISO 800
wide angle
f2.8 (some just have a scale to 100 - put it on 100)
manual focus to infinity
You will also need a phone tripod. You can pick these up cheaply from KMart etc.
As with any photoshoot, you need to ensure you plan correctly to get the optimised conditions.
If you are on a tour with me all the planning has been done for you. You can then spend more time shooting in optimal conditions rather than planning.
However if you are going solo you will need the following apps or websites.
Weatherhttps://www.yr.no (make sure you change the language to English)
PlanningPlanitpro app
Photopills app
Moon and sunhttps://www.timeanddate.com/
AuroraGlendale - you download the app from their site https://aurora-alerts.uk/
Aurora app
Aurora alerts app
https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/products/aurora-30-minute-forecast
There are many more but these are my first go-to sites.
