How to photograph the northern lights
Phone night mode or a camera on a tripod: the settings that work, and why the camera sees more colour than you do.
Cameras collect light for seconds, so they often show the aurora brighter and greener than your eyes. That makes even a phone a good aurora detector.
With a phone
- Rest the phone on something solid or use a small tripod; even a jacket on a car roof works.
- Turn on Night mode (iPhone) or Night Sight / Astro (Android) and let it run the longest exposure it offers (3–30 s).
- Turn off the flash, tap to focus on a distant light or the horizon, and lower exposure a little if the image looks washed out.
- Hold still until the shot finishes.
With a camera
- Manual focus on a bright star (zoom in on the screen), then tape the ring.
- Widest aperture (f/1.4–f/2.8), ISO 1600–3200.
- Shutter 2–10 s for active, fast-moving aurora; 10–20 s for faint arcs. Longer blurs the curtains.
- Shoot RAW, white balance around 3500–4000 K.
- A 2-second timer or remote avoids shake.
Composition
Include something on the ground: a tree, a lake reflection, a cabin. Face the poleward horizon (north in the Northern Hemisphere), check tonight’s outlook and give your eyes time to adapt between shots by dimming the screen.