The mirrorless camera is the best modern tool you can use to photograph the Northern Lights. Having full control over every camera setting and the ability to make adjustments on-the-fly allows you to capture breathtaking photos of the Northern Lights under any conditions. The full-frame sensors that come in many mirrorless cameras are built to excel in night and low-light conditions. We will cover them in a separate post, but all modern cell phones are mirrorless cameras, too!
To photograph the Northern Lights with a mirrorless camera, you’ll need to use a tripod for the long-exposure shots. And while it’s not required, we also recommend using a remote to reduce camera shake when opening and closing the shutter. If your camera was made within the last 10 years or so, you likely already have the remote in your pocket: your smartphone. Make sure you charge it up with everything else before you head out.
In this post, we’ll look at every setting you need to take full control of your mirrorless camera so you can capture the breathtaking photos of the Northern Lights you have waited so long for.
Use a Wide Angle Lens with a Wide Aperture
When the Northern Lights appear, they dance across the entire sky. And you want to capture as much of them as possible. The easiest way to do that Is to use a wide angle lens. However, all wide angle lenses are not created equal. Higher quality lenses have wider apertures (lower f-stops), which allow more light into the sensor, and result in much higher-quality pictures.
Interestingly, not a lot of people realize that prime lenses give you a crisper and sharper image than zoom lenses. It’s not a big difference, and with high quality lenses it can be downright subtle. We generally use a 16 mm f/2.8 prime lens to photograph the Northern Lights.
Shoot in RAW
Shooting in RAW is a no-brainer, but so many people overlook it. Yes, RAW files are bigger, but both high-capacity SD cards and hard drives are so inexpensive these days. JPEGs are lossy, compressed files and you will see the drop in quality compared to RAW. Additionally, RAW files offer so much more flexibility with post-processing and recovering lost data. You can often recover lost data in RAW images. However, with JPEGs, once the data’s gone, it’s gone.
Shoot in Manual Mode
Shooting in manual mode gives you full control over both your camera and your photographs. One of the biggest advantages mirrorless cameras have over traditional DSLR’s when photographing the Northern Lights is that the image you see in the viewfinder is actually the image the camera will capture. Being able to tweak settings and make adjustments on the fly so efficiently makes mirrorless cameras one of the best tools to photograph the Northern Lights
Before we dive into camera settings, going fully manual also means using a manual focus. Automatic focuses on many cameras struggle in dark and low light conditions, which you will encounter photographing the Northern Lights. On modern cameras, the focus can sometimes try to adjust on-the-fly. In low light conditions, cameras often struggle to lock the focus back in, which will result in either blurry images or no images at all. That’s not what you want to be dealing with when you’re trying to capture the Northern Lights.
To set the focus manually, place your camera on a tripod and aim it at the sky where you intend to photograph the Northern Lights. Set the focus to infinity. You will likely need to tweak the focus slightly down to get the sky and landscape in focus. If your camera can highlight what’s in focus, use that. If not, take a test shot to see what’s in focus and what’s not. Continue to adjust as necessary until everything is in proper focus.
Now, let’s look at some camera settings.
Low ISO Value
The ISO value control how much light is let into the camera. While higher ISO values allow more light into the camera, they come at a high price: increased noise and graininess. As a result, you want to use as low an ISO value as possible. It varies by camera model how high an ISO you need before photos start to get grainy, but we recommend keeping ISO levels below 1000.
Before you start adjusting the ISO, set the aperture to as wide as it will go (the lowest f-stop on your lens). Then, set as long an exposure as you can without getting any motion blur or star trails. These adjustments allow the maximum amount of light into your camera without adding any noise. Once you get those set, then you can start playing with ISO levels.
One other tip for getting spectacular photos of the Northern Lights is to use a full-frame camera. The larger sensor in full frame cameras allows much more light to reach the sensor than their crop sensor counterparts. And do you know how crop sensor cameras compensate for less light? Yup, they raise the ISO levels, resulting in much grainier pictures in low light.
20 to 30 Second Exposure
Regardless of whether you’re shooting with a full-frame camera or crop sensor, a 20 to 30 second exposure seems to be the sweet spot for the Northern Lights. Those exposures capture the crisp brilliance of the auroras, yet remains short enough to prevent star trails, ensuring a crisp sky behind the Northern Lights.
However, feel free to experiment with shorter values as well, particularly if the auroras are particularly vibrant. You can go as low as 5 to 10 seconds and still get spectacular Northern Lights photos. Longer exposures can work too, but be aware colors can start to wash out if you leave the shutter open too long. Additionally, you risk star trails from the Earth’s rotation, which can be very distracting when they sit behind the Northern Lights.
As Wide an Aperture as Your Lens will Allow (at least f/4)
Your camera’s aperture gives you the most control over how much light gets let in. For any type of nighttime photography, including the Northern Lights, you want as wide an aperture as possible. Nearly all modern lenses get at least as wide as f/4. With a full-frame camera, f/4 does a perfectly fine job capturing the Northern Lights. But to get those really crisp, eye-popping shots, you’ll want a lens that goes to either f/1.8 or f/2.8. Be aware that a lot of zoom lenses that go that wide are quite pricey. However, you can find plenty of prime lenses that go wider than f/4 that don’t break the bank. The 16 mm f/2.8 lens we use to capture the Northern Lights costs less than $300.
How to Frame Your Northern Lights Photo
If you’ve seen any of our weather and storm chasing pictures, you’ll want to frame your Northern Lights photos the same way. The general rule of thumb is to put the landscape in the lowest quarter or third of your photo, leaving the rest of the frame for the dazzling auroras. However, it’s not exactly a secret that the best destinations to see the Northern Lights are also some of the most beautiful places on earth. So don’t be afraid to be creative. If you want to highlight a feature on the ground or draw your viewers’ eye to the landscape more, by all means do so. Just remember that once you go past a 50/50 split between the landscape and the sky, you no longer have a Northern Lights photo. You have a landscape photo.
Summary of Camera Settings
- Camera on tripod, with optional remote
- Wide angle lens with no filter
- RAW Image
- Aperture f/4 or wider (preferably f/2.8 or f/1.8)
- 20 to 30 second exposure
- ISO 1000 or less
- Manual focus set to infinity and tweaked as needed
Final Thoughts
The Northern Lights are one of the most rewarding phenomena to photograph with your mirrorless camera. Putting yourself in complete control of that process with full manual camera settings makes it even more rewarding. Because fully understanding your camera’s settings and tweaking them as needed are often the difference between an average Northern Lights photograph and a breathtaking one.
