Magic & Challenge of the Northern Lights

The Northern Lights, or Aurora Borealis, are truly a wonderful and addictive phenomena. I’ve seen them a couple of times in different locations. You never know if you see them or not. Two years ago I was for 10 days in north of Norway with very good sun activity. But, due to very cloudy weather there was not even a glimpse. A couple of months ago I spent almost three weeks in Lapland: cloudy weather basically every night, thus, no lights. There have been times when the mesmerising Northern Lights appeared as I thought (lucky!); colourful lights all over the sky. In the autumn 2020 I went to Kilpisjärvi in the north of Finnish Lapland for a week and was a bit more lucky.

Just a perfect night with the Northern Lights, snowy landscape and moonlight

After having driven over 400km of icy roads I arrived in Kilpisjärvi. Once settled I decided to go up to Tsahkal lake the same evening. I walked up the longer path following some footsteps on the snow. The only light in the woods was my torch. After tens of turns on the way up I finally reached to be above the trees. Suddenly Y-shaped green lines appeared just in front of me. Magic! I continued to walk until the Lake Tsahkal; the photos would certainly look better there. Finally I arrived on the lake and prepared the camera. The clouds had arrived in the meantime and hid the aurora borealis. I waited for two hours in the cold (-15C) drinking hot tea, and hoping the clouds to disappear. Not a chance. Once it started snowing I decided to pack my gear and head back.

It was still wonderful to be up there totally alone; listening to the Arctic silence, seeing no artificial lights, feeling the cold temperature of the night. Pure Nature.

I went out four evenings with a hope to photograph the Northern Lights; sometimes I was very lucky and other times less lucky. Each time it was still wonderful to be out in the Arctic night. It was nearly full moon, and there was plenty of fresh snow. Thus, the amount of light during the nights was quite significant which has a huge impact on the photography both from technical and visual perspectives.

I have collected hereafter some reflections of photographing the Northern Lights. The better you are prepared the better chances you have and more enjoyable the cold nights are.

First of all there are the technical aspects such as camera settings which depend on the weather conditions (full moon vs no moon; snow vs no snow), the type of camera and focal length of the lens. The most important is the shutter speed as that determines how you can see the form of the Northern Lights. The shutter speed should preferably be below 6 or 8sec. The choice of the focal length depends on where the Aurora Borealis are located. If they are on top of you, 14mm focal length (or as wide as possible) could be the choice; if they are on the horizon even 70mm focal length could do. The ISO is usually 1600 and up depending on the capability of the camera. Usually the f can be quite low (f/2,8 for example), especially with wide angle lenses. The best is to try out what works best under the conditions.

As the Aurora Borealis are visible during the night, you need to be able to find a good place for the tripod, set the camera on it, prepare the settings, focus the camera,… in the dark, cold and snowy conditions.

In order to avoid condensation I pack my camera inside the bag before going inside, and leave it there until the following morning.

Another aspect is the adequate clothing; how to keep warm when not moving for several hours. This time I had only trekking shoes and warm socks which were not enough when the temperatures were less than -8C. It’s good to have wool gloves under the warm gloves. This way you don’t need to expose the hands for the cold. Usually I pack an extra layer, for example a wool sweater, just to be sure to stay warm. Also, hot drink is a very nice to have. The better you know what you can handle the better you can prepare.

One of my lenses froze after two hours of photographing at night. The reason? I was breathing(!) near the lens. There was no wind, and my breath, which is humid, got stuck on the lens and eventually froze. In order to avoid this problem, you should breath far away from the lens. Probably easier said than done.

If and when you go to a new location, you can do some desktop search at home; just to understand what kind of possibilities there are, how to get to the locations from your accommodation, etc. Also, it helps to do some scouting during the day light.

To reach places that are not next to a street or village lights, you need to be comfortable to walk in darkness with a torch. Also, to find locations without clouds you might need to drive a couple of hundred of kilometres at night in icy roads. It’s good to take these into consideration when photographing Northern Lights.

The Northern Lights appear when there is activity on the sun. There are several apps (for example AuroraAlert and Aurora) and websites that show Aurora Borealis forecasts. So far I have only checked the KP indicator, however, I learned this time that the KP is not sufficient. It’s better to understand the satellite data as well. Of course the prerequisite to see the Northern Lights are clear and dark sky; otherwise they can appear at any time.

The overall scene is important for photography - the Northern Lights are one element in the total photo. I have seen wonderful Northern Lights but the locations were not that good, and the photos were not good neither. It’s very challenging to get it all right: the location, the Northern Lights and the meteoritical conditions. The more you are out there, the better chances you have.

You never know in advance how the Northern Lights would look like. They are all different. I think this is big part of their charm; they are each time new and surprising. It’s magic.

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