Techniques for Photographing the Northern Lights, from Beginner to Advanced

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On this episode of The Wild Photographer Court Whelan takes you on an exciting journey into the art of Northern Lights photography. From the gear you need to choosing the best locations, Court shares his expertise and years of experience in capturing this natural wonder. Whether you're a beginner or a seasoned photographer, this episode offers valuable insights to elevate your Aurora photography skills.

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Court discusses essential techniques, including camera settings, composition tips, and even how to use your phone for breathtaking shots. He also explores the science behind the Aurora Borealis and how to pick the perfect time and location for your next photography adventure. Packed with practical advice, this episode is your ultimate guide to capturing nature's most dazzling light show.

Expect to Learn:

• The challenges and joys of photographing the Northern Lights
• How to select and use the right gear for Aurora photography
• Tips for composing stunning shots with dynamic foregrounds
• The science behind the Aurora Borealis and choosing optimal locations
• Using camera settings and time-lapse techniques to capture the Aurora
• How to shoot great Northern Lights photos with your smartphone

Episode Breakdown with Timestamps:
[00:00:47] – Introduction: Court introduces the episode and the magic of Northern Lights photography.
[00:07:05] – Choosing the Right Gear: Insights into cameras, lenses, and tripods for the best results.
[00:15:11] – Timing Matters: Understanding the 11-year Aurora cycle and best months for viewing.
[00:24:00] – Composing Your Shots: Importance of foreground elements and techniques for framing.
[00:29:48] – Mastering Focus: Tips for achieving sharp focus in challenging conditions.
[00:39:17] – Phone Photography: Capturing the Aurora using smartphones.
[00:41:05] – Court’s Gear Picks: Recommendations for cameras, lenses, and accessories.
[00:45:45] – Closing Thoughts: Court wraps up with tips and listener Q&A about multi-purpose lenses.

This episode is kindly sponsored by:

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My Complete Camera Kit

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• View Court's
  
  (00:21):
  You're photographing really themost amazing thing you're going
  to see in your life.
  It's Mother Nature's fireworkshow.
  It is just this other worldlything that is hard to really
  describe the beauty of.
  But I think we do a pretty darngood job with photography.
  So this is a deep dive intoNorthern Lights photography from
  beginner to advanced.
  That means that if you are abeginner, I'm going to get you
  
  (00:43):
  to advanced by the end of thisepisode.
  It also means that if you areadvanced in photography already,
  I'm going to give you everytool and trick in my arsenal to
  get you out taking extraordinaryNorthern Lights shots on your
  very first go.
  I'm also going to tell youabout where to go to take
  Northern Lights photos the bestin the world because that's a
  big, big part of the equationtoo.
  So we'll get into the episodein a second, but quick couple
  
  (01:05):
  housekeeping things.
  As always.
  I want to invite you to submita listener question.
  Today's question we'll get toat the end of this episode and
  it's about multi-purpose lenses,their efficacy, their pros and
  their cons.
  So I'm looking forward toanswering that question on air.
  But also I invite you to submityour own.
  You can ask anything in theworld of nature photography, be
  it wildlife, landscape, travel,cultural you name it.
  
  (01:27):
  I would love to hear from youand you can do so by either
  writing fan mail in a podcastrealm that's a sort of new thing
  in the podcast world or you cango to my YouTube channel.
  That's just at Court Whalen.
  So go on to YouTube, searchCourt Whalen and you're going to
  find my channel and you canleave a comment under any of my
  podcast episodes.
  Doesn't matter which one, justany comment.
  I'll see it and I'll respond toit there and respond to it on
  
  (01:49):
  air.
  Or you can email me atwildphotographerpodcast at
  gmailcom.
  That's wildphotographerpodcastat gmailcom.
  I'd also like to thank thesponsor of this episode,
  lensrentalscom.
  If you use the promo code wildphotographer 15, you can get 15
  off renting any sort of gear.
  This is a really, really goodepisode to talk about that,
  
  (02:10):
  because gear is quite importantfor northern lights photography
  and there is one specificcategory of lens that I'm going
  to talk about in this episode.
  That is pretty high end, butit's going to get you the most
  high end, the best results.
  So we'll talk about that.
  And again, renting that foryour northern lights adventure
  is going to be a really bestresults.
  So we'll talk about that.
  And again, renting that foryour Northern Lights adventure
  is going to be a really, reallypro tip.
  So we'll get into that more.
  But again, big thanks to LensRentals making amazing lenses
  
  (02:32):
  available to all of us andmaking this podcast possible
  through their sponsorship.
  So thank you so much there.
  All right, folks, withoutfurther ado, let's get into it A
  deep dive into Northern Lightsphotography from beginner to
  advanced.
  Ado, let's get into it A deepdive into Northern Lights
  photography from beginner toadvanced.
  So let's talk about thechallenges first.
  You are often in very coldplaces, in very remote places.
  It's usually at night.
  
  (02:54):
  It better be at night, or elseyou're not going to see them.
  And it's going to be new.
  It's going to be something youprobably haven't done a lot of
  before, even if you've done alot of night photography.
  This puts you in a differentelement.
  So between the cold, betweenthe gear slugging around a
  tripod between not reallyknowing what you're looking for,
  and then the frenzy and theextraordinary views you have,
  
  (03:17):
  that kind of puts you out ofyour own element.
  You get kind of in a tizzy.
  So there's lots stacked upagainst you for Northern Lights
  photography.
  But on the flip side, it's oneof the easiest ways to
  photograph something trulyextraordinary, because you're
  not waiting for a split secondaction, like salmon leaping into
  a bear's mouth, warming hutsand putting your tripod and your
  
  (03:45):
  camera outside and looking forforeground elements, and then
  going inside and having some hotcocoa, some teas, some Baileys,
  whatever's on deck, and thenwaiting for that Aurora show.
  So you have the time, you nowhave the knowledge, or you soon
  will, from this podcast, but thesettings are kind of
  complicated and, in addition,the settings are actually pretty
  easy and straightforward, likewe'll get to in a second.
  The challenge is putting thatall together with that frenzy,
  
  (04:08):
  with the cold, with the night,with, you know, the fervor that
  is chasing the aurora.
  So, again, the idea of thisepisode is to overcome all those
  challenges and you're going tofind, through the various things
  I talk about today, that it'sactually pretty straightforward
  you just have to juggle a fewthings all at once.
  It's actually prettystraightforward you just have to
  juggle a few things all at once.
  So the cool thing as well isI'm going to tell you in this
  
  (04:29):
  episode how to get great Auroraphotos on your phone.
  Yes, if you have a phone that'swithin the last three years,
  you're going to get some greatAurora shots.
  I've seen it time and timeagain.
  It's actually one of the mostinspiring things to see someone
  just use their phone, point itto the sky for about a second
  and then come away withsomething that's very social
  media share worthy, verytextable to friends and really,
  
  (04:51):
  really quite fun.
  But that all being said, yourbest bet, your best quality
  photos, of course, is going tocome from some fancier DSLR or
  mirrorless camera.
  So let's get into the gearitself.
  So the first thing you're goingto need is a tripod.
  Okay, so tripod holding yourcamera still is absolutely
  critical.
  You're going to be takingexposures anywhere from five to
  
  (05:14):
  25 seconds and doing thathandheld, unless you're on a
  smartphone we're going to get tothat later but doing with a
  camera, you know, proper DSLR, aproper mirrorless.
  You simply have to have a tripod, and a good sturdy tripod as
  well.
  I really don't like these light, small travel tripods that are
  kind of flimsy.
  If you think of some of theseplaces that we're going in the
  
  (05:34):
  dead of winter in the northernareas it can be windy, there can
  be snow on the ground, sohaving something kind of big and
  beefy and sturdy really is toyour benefit.
  Fortunately, we're not havingto slug this tripod around on a
  lot of trails to get deeper anddeeper into the woods or deeper
  into the wild, so you don't haveto have something that's ultra
  packable.
  So I do recommend a good sturdytripod.
  
  (05:55):
  I love my Manfrotto carbonfiber tripod, but I also love my
  Peak Design carbon fiber tripod.
  The Peak Design is a little bitlighter but because it is such
  a high-end tripod it's reallyquite stable.
  But getting some sort of goodsturdy tripod honestly, when we
  think about the singular goal ofphotographing Northern Lights,
  the heavier the better.
  I realize that that is not thegoal for travel.
  
  (06:15):
  Necessarily, small and light isgood for travel, but think
  about that when balancing whatgear you do bring.
  If you have choices in yourtripod, say, you have a couple
  of them at home, don't worryabout taking the light one.
  Get the heavy one.
  Okay, so probably the biggestthing, other than the camera
  itself as far as gear that canvary, that you have some choices
  on, but is ultra important, isyour ultra wide angle lens.
  
  (06:37):
  Now notice, I'm saying ultra.
  Your ultra wide angle is goingto be something that is almost
  on the fis eye in the spectrum.
  It's not your kit lens, it'snot the thing that comes with
  your camera.
  It's not your 18 to 55, your 24to 105, or even your 24
  millimeter prime.
  We're talking about your reallywide end.
  So for crop frame sensors,we're talking about like a 10 to
  22.
  
  (06:57):
  For full frame sensors, we'retalking about something like a
  15 to 35.
  So you really want to thinkabout going ultra wide.
  Now, what often confuses peopleis you have a choice of ultra
  wide or very fast when it comesto lenses.
  The speed of a lens is not howquickly it can take a photo,
  it's how much light it lets in.
  
  (07:18):
  And oftentimes, if you are moreon the advanced in the spectrum
  out there in the audience,you're probably thinking well,
  wouldn't I rather have a 24millimeter F1.4?
  It's not ultra wide, but thatF1.4 lets in a ton of light and
  I have to say when I was reallyinto astrophotography.
  That's the lens I used as a 241.4.
  I took it to Northern Lightsand it was not my ideal lens.
  
  (07:40):
  I would rather have a muchslower lens.
  I was using like a 17 to 40 f4for many years and, as you know,
  f4 is like one quarter theamount of light that an f1.4 is.
  So, as a result, I'm reallyobsessed about taking the widest
  lens that I can and I'm notactually too worried about the
  
  (08:00):
  aperture.
  Now, that being said, myfavorite lens for photographing
  the Northern Lights is the15-35mm f2.8 class of lenses.
  Now, different cameramanufacturers will have 14-24mm
  or it might be a 16-35mm, sodon't get hung up in the exact
  number, but something in andaround 15mm on the wide end, and
  if you can get that f2.8, thatis going to be definitely your
  
  (08:24):
  best bet.
  Now, I did just say don't'tworry about speed, and I get it.
  I'm contradicting myself, butif you can get a slightly faster
  lens while maintaining ultrawide, that's great.
  You do want to let in morelight.
  You'll just be surprised at howbright the Aurora really can be
  , especially when you have superlong exposures like 10, 15, 20,
  
  (08:44):
  25 seconds.
  My key point here is that whenyou have two sides of the
  balance.
  You have a sort of moderatelens like a 24 millimeter or 28
  millimeter or a 35 millimeter.
  That's really really fast F1.4,f1.2, even F1.8.
  Put that aside and pick up theultra wide angle.
  
  (09:04):
  That's gonna be a lot slower.
  Like the 10 to 22, like the 15to 35, those are gonna be your
  best bet because you want to seemore sky.
  Simply put, I didn't get tothat point.
  That's the whole point here.
  You want more sky.
  You also want more foreground.
  So ultra wide is the key.
  The speed, the light.
  We'll figure that out in thecamera settings.
  
  (09:24):
  A piece of gear that I'm goingto tell you you don't need is a
  shutter release.
  A lot of times people think oh,long exposure, big landscape
  opportunities.
  I need to bring some sort ofshutter release cable with me or
  a remote.
  If you have one I'm not tellingyou to, you know, completely,
  leave it at home.
  I just don't personally usethem.
  I prefer the two second timerdelay instead.
  This is a feature that everysingle camera, every single
  
  (09:46):
  iPhone has.
  What it does is you can setyour camera on a two second
  exposure delay.
  So when you hit that shutterbutton, it takes one Mississippi
  to Mississippi and then itshoots.
  The reason this is important isbecause, even if your camera's
  on a tripod, when you press thatshutter, you don't want the
  movement of the camera, thatslight, fractional movement, to
  appear in the photo.
  
  (10:06):
  You want your camera to settledown, you want your hands to be
  away from the camera when thatexposure, when that shutter
  actually snaps, and this is whya shutter release can be very
  good.
  The reason I don't bring it isjust one more piece of gear to
  have to fuddle with.
  It's one more thing.
  You have to sync up to yourcamera with Bluetooth or
  wireless.
  If you find a really, reallygreat shutter release out there,
  
  (10:26):
  please leave that in thecomments.
  Let me know what it is.
  I just haven't found that yet,but maybe there is something out
  there that you know and youpersonally love.
  And, yeah, you can bring it,but I don't think it's necessary
  .
  It's definitely not a piece ofgear that is really crucial for
  this trip.
  Now the final thing.
  This is not a piece of gear,but this is absolutely a
  necessity.
  This is going to be location.
  
  (10:48):
  You need a great location forgreat Aurora photography.
  So that leads me to my nextsection how to put yourself in
  front of the aurora.
  Well, this is where I get alittle bit nerdy and scientific,
  and your location is going tobe very, very dependent on how
  close you are to what's calledthe aurora oval.
  It's a common misconceptionthat you can just go further and
  further north towards the NorthPole and have better and better
  
  (11:10):
  chances of seeing the aurora.
  That's simply not true.
  There's actually a band of highmagnetic activity around
  geomagnetic North Pole, and thisis not the North Pole itself.
  It's slightly askew, but thepoint is it doesn't get better
  the closer to the pole you get.
  It's actually an oval, it'slike a ring, it's a band.
  It's something that if you gotoo close to the pole, you might
  
  (11:30):
  as well be too far south.
  I'll say that again If you gotoo far north of this ring or
  this oval, it's like being toofar south.
  So being at the north pole, youmight as well be in Nebraska,
  basically.
  So the key is to be in aposition right around that
  aurora oval, because this iswhere the magnetic field lines
  of the earth dip down.
  It's where the solar winds andsolar particles, like these
  
  (11:52):
  electrons and these protons,stream towards earth along this
  oval, along these bands.
  They're called Van Allenradiation belts, and this is
  where those protons andelectrons bombard the atmosphere
  , bombard the two main elements,nitrogen and oxygen, cause them
  to explode and release energy.
  It releases energy in the formof you guessed it light, so
  
  (12:13):
  green for oxygen, pink fornitrogen, red for high altitude
  oxygen.
  So we just did a little bit ofa scientific deep dive there.
  But I think it's reallyimportant to understand that and
  I can't emphasize it enough,that you need to be around this
  zone of high magnetic activity.
  Now the place that I personallylike going is called Churchill,
  canada.
  It's in Manitoba.
  It's actually not that farnorth, it's around the 58th
  
  (12:34):
  parallel.
  You'll know that North Pole isbasically at 90 degrees, so it's
  really it's not most of the wayup there, it's actually fairly
  south.
  This is nice because it'ssomewhat accessible.
  You don't get maybe as cold oftemperatures as if you were at
  85 degrees north.
  It certainly doesn't take aslong to fly up there.
  But more importantly and we'regoing to come back to this just
  in a second is the amount offoreground elements and the ease
  
  (12:57):
  with which you can get awayfrom light pollution.
  So you're kind of looking forsomething that is accessible,
  something that is a town thathas foreground elements, close
  to the forest, close tostructures, close to interesting
  buildings, but also not so bigthat you're going to get a lot
  of light pollution.
  Also, most importantly, notclose to liquid water.
  This is a huge, huge thing forme.
  
  (13:18):
  A lot of people like to go toScandinavia, to Norway, to
  Finland, to Iceland, and they'relooking for aurora in the
  wintertime because of the darkskies and dark nights.
  But then they find that becauseof that liquid water that
  somewhat quote unquote warmocean, you know, the ocean is
  probably like 33, 34 degreescompared to the land, which
  might be, you know, minus five.
  It creates clouds and createsweather.
  
  (13:39):
  So the location is not justdependent on this oval itself,
  it's also dependent on what kindof weather is around, and this
  is why I love interior locations.
  Churchill, although it sits ona frozen bay, is indeed frozen
  in the winter, so it acts justlike land Fairbanks another one
  it's inland, so you don't havethat really high chance of
  clouds like you might on anisland like Iceland that's
  
  (14:02):
  surrounded by water.
  The warm water, cold landcreates that gradient and it
  oftentimes creates clouds and alot of weather.
  Now, this is not to say thatIceland isn't gorgeous to
  photograph in the winter.
  I did so myself this pastFebruary on a little expedition
  of my own.
  Loved it, but did not see theaurora, and that's a problem if
  you're aurora hunting.
  You got to find it.
  So locations super important.
  
  (14:24):
  Timing is also very important.
  When in the year do you want togo and what years do you want
  to go?
  Well, you may have heard in thenews that the aurora is on an
  11-year cycle that is peakingthis year and next.
  We're obviously not sure ofwhen the exact peak is.
  Usually the peak is recordedand observed best after the peak
  .
  When we start going down, it'sjust continuing to tick up and
  
  (14:44):
  up, and up and up.
  The aurora activity isstupendous.
  What that aurora activity isdoing is it's directly in
  relation to the sun, this bighydrogen ball.
  All that peak activity, all the11 year cycle, all that peak
  that we're at right now isbecause we're seeing more sun
  spots on the sun than usual.
  And it does go in this 11 yearcycle.
  Every 11 years there's a peakand in between those 11 years,
  so like five to six years,there's a trough, and all this
  
  (15:08):
  is is when the sun has reducedsolar flare, solar wind activity
  .
  We still don't know totally whyit's this 11 year cycle.
  I'm sure there are manytheories out there.
  However, we don't totally knowwhy, but we do know it's a thing
  .
  So 11 years, we're in it rightnow.
  Now is a fantastic time, butunfortunately not all year round
  
  (15:28):
  is a really great time.
  You have to go when there aredark skies, right.
  If you go towards Arctic andsubarctic areas in the dead of
  summer you're probably going toget like 20 hours of daylight
  and maybe the sun's never goingto totally, totally set.
  So you have to go during winter.
  My advice is sometime betweenNovember and March of the year
  If you want to kind of hit thatbell curve.
  
  (15:49):
  January, february, fantastictimes, but essentially winter.
  You want to be somewhere aroundthat winter solstice.
  You get as much dark sky, asmuch night as possible.
  So you mix location withsomething on the aurora,
  something super cold, so cloudscan't form away from water, so
  clouds are less likely to form.
  Go during a peak solar year, goduring winter.
  
  (16:11):
  Go during a peak solar year, goduring winter and voila, the
  upcoming season might be thebest of all time, truly all time
  .
  Yeah, I mean it's a big boldthing to say, but I am so
  looking forward to the photosthat come out of this upcoming
  winter season.
  Okay, so the real nitty grittyof camera settings.
  I told you that AuroraPhotography is some of the
  easiest and some of the hardestaltogether.
  
  (16:33):
  The camera settings areadvanced, meaning you have to be
  on manual mode.
  But I'm going to tell you thesesettings and you can dial it
  into your camera and you're notgoing to really change anything.
  You can just stick on thesesettings and change very, very
  little with the shutter speedhere and there, and you're good
  to go.
  So, basically, you're going toput your camera on manual,
  
  (16:54):
  you're going to put youraperture on the smallest F
  number possible, you're going toput your ISO at around 1600.
  And then you're going to putyour shutter speed around 10
  seconds.
  Okay, so three things aperture,smallest number possible.
  So 2.8, awesome.
  F4, awesome.
  If you have a lens that's toomuch over F4, okay.
  
  (17:15):
  Maybe then we have someproblems.
  But pretty much every lens Iknow out there that's an ultra
  wide will have the smallest Fnumber, around 3.5 or 4.
  A lot of them have 2.8.
  And then ISO around 1600.
  So you can walk out the doorand that's going to give you a
  really, really great startingpoint.
  So 10 seconds.
  Smallest F number, iso 1600.
  
  (17:36):
  Now, of course, you're going towant to change some of this
  stuff, but you're never going toreally change the aperture.
  You want it to be as fast aspossible.
  But you might change yourshutter speed, and here's why.
  Well, first of all, if 1600 isnot bright enough but you might
  want to change your shutterspeed you might want to change
  your ISO as well.
  Those are the two things youmight toy with, but not
  dramatically, like you're notgoing to be going down to ISO
  
  (17:58):
  100, nor do I advise you goingto ISO 12,800.
  You want to be somewhere inthat 1600, 3200 range.
  You probably know your camerabetter than most people in terms
  of its tolerance for high ISOs.
  My camera does pretty well at3200, maybe even 6400.
  But 1600 is going to be thebetter quality.
  So I'm going to start with thatNow.
  
  (18:20):
  Shutter speed 10 seconds, Ithink, is a nice sweet spot to
  begin your aurora photography.
  It's not so slow that you'rewaiting for 2530 seconds between
  shots.
  It's also not so fast thatyou're going to really
  dramatically limit light, likeyou're going to get enough light
  .
  You're going to see if theaurora is there.
  But the 10 second exposure isone thing that probably the
  first thing I'm going to change.
  I might bump this up to 15 or20 seconds.
  
  (18:42):
  So if you think 20 secondsversus 10 seconds would be
  double the amount of light, I'mlooking at the camera, I'm
  looking at my photo afterwardsand I'm seeing if I need to
  double the light or increase thelight in any sort of way.
  Now, one thing I will cautionagainst is you really don't want
  to go slower than about 25seconds.
  The reason is the rotation ofthe earth itself is moving fast
  
  (19:04):
  enough that if you have a 30, 35, 40 second exposure what we
  would call bulb mode, b-u-l-bbulb mode for just kind of like
  turning it on and then relyingon yourself to then hit the
  button to close the shutter youcan go as long as you want.
  But if you start going intothat 30 and 40 second range, the
  spinning of the earth actuallyblurs the stars that you're
  
  (19:25):
  going to see in your background.
  They start to look like littleworms, like little long lines.
  So anything over 25 seconds andyou really run that risk.
  So, as a result, I don't golonger than 25 seconds unless I
  absolutely have to, and that's asuper rare occasion.
  I'm not going to give you thereasons for that.
  It's just me being experimental, really.
  I'm sticking somewhere around15 to 20 seconds Now because I
  
  (19:47):
  can mess around with my ISO andI can double that to 3200, which
  also lets in twice as muchlight.
  I'm kind of ping ponging backand forth Do I increase my
  shutter speed?
  Do I decrease my shutter speed?
  Do I increase my ISO?
  Do I decrease my ISO?
  This is where the creativitycomes in.
  This is where your specificscene and exactly what you're
  looking at will come in.
  But I am always trying toreduce my shutter speed as well
  
  (20:10):
  as reduce my ISO.
  That's the goal.
  As the Aurora starts reallykicking, starts getting really,
  really bright, I want to startreducing both those.
  The reason I want to reduce myISO is because I want better
  quality in my photo.
  A dark photo with a high ISOwill look grainy, it's going to
  look noisy, and most camerasover ISO 1600 begin to start
  
  (20:31):
  looking noisy and grainy.
  Now caveat out there, there issome extraordinary denoise and
  high ISO software out there,built into Photoshop, built into
  Lightroom program, called Topazdenoise.
  These are really reallyextraordinary.
  But you want to be judiciousand you still want to get the
  photo as you want in camera andnot rely on the denoise in the
  
  (20:53):
  sort of long exposurecompensations.
  In addition, I don't recommendhaving your long exposure
  denoise feature turned on inyour camera itself.
  Some of these big fancy cameraswill allow you to do that.
  I find that the software in thecamera doesn't do as well as
  the software in Lightroom andTopaz, so I keep that off.
  Just a little pro tip.
  
  (21:15):
  But, like I said, I want tocontinuously decrease my ISO as
  long as there's enough light,right, and I'm very dependent on
  how bright the aurora is, howbig of a show the aurora is and
  these little auroral substorms,as they're called.
  Now, why would I want to alsodecrease my shutter speed?
  Shouldn't I just leave it openas long as possible to get as
  much light and just use that asmy sort of pendulum swinging
  back and forth brighter,increase the shutter, darker,
  
  (21:38):
  decrease the shutter, yes.
  However, as the Aurora startsreally picking up and really
  kicking, it will move in frontof you.
  It's like this beautifulserpentine, wave-like pattern
  and motion in the atmosphere andit's extraordinary.
  And what happens is when theaurora is really active and
  really bright, I don't need asmuch light coming in or I'm able
  
  (21:58):
  to decrease my shutter but,more importantly, I'm able to
  stop down that motion.
  Now it's not moving like asnake, slithering, you know, at
  a hundred miles an hour over thesand.
  It's a very slow curtain likeeffect.
  But if I have my shutter on for15 seconds, all that movement,
  all that definition of thecurtain, it's going to move
  enough that it's just going tobe a really big green swath in
  
  (22:20):
  the sky and I'm going to losethat definition of the curtain.
  And the curtain of Aurora iswhat gives it its real classic
  Northern light shape.
  So if I can get my shutter down, you know, keep it at 10
  seconds, get it down to fiveseconds, maybe even slower.
  It's just going to provide moreand more definition to the
  curtain.
  So here's where you're going tohave to make a little bit of
  your own decision is do youdecrease your shutter speed or
  
  (22:42):
  increase your ISO?
  Again, I'm not doing anythingtoo crazy.
  I'm always staying between fiveand 20 seconds and I'm always
  staying somewhere around 1600ISO, maybe dropping into 800,
  maybe increasing it to 3200.
  But as you can see, it's apretty narrow range and that's
  where you're going to want to goout into the field with knowing
  your points of flexibility butknowing where your North Star I
  
  (23:06):
  guess kind of pun intended herewhere your North Star of
  settings is.
  Don't sway too much from theformula I just gave you.
  Okay, let's move on tocomposition.
  This is like the actual takingof your photo.
  So you got your settings,you're in the right place at the
  right time of year, et cetera,et cetera.
  How are you setting up yourshot?
  Well, the really key thing isthat you have that ultra wide
  angle lens on so you're able toget as much of the sky and as
  
  (23:28):
  much of the foreground aspossible.
  And the foreground element isthe key part of the equation
  here.
  So if you were to take a photoof the Northern Lights, it's in
  the sky, all diffuse green, andthat's your shot, with no
  relativity, no building, novehicle, no person, nothing else
  other than just the sky.
  It's going to look like youwent into a Microsoft paint and
  
  (23:49):
  just drew a green swath over ablack canvas.
  It is not going to be much toreally understand.
  You want some sort of tree, youwant some sort of structure,
  you want a snowy field, abuilding, a little outhouse lit
  from the inside.
  You know something interesting.
  That's your focal point, togive it that relativity.
  So the foreground is somethingthat I think people will often
  skip over in the flurry to getout there and take the shot,
  
  (24:11):
  especially if this is theirfirst time.
  But mapping out and looking forthe foreground elements before
  the aurora gets kicking is areally, really key part of this.
  So beyond that, there's nothingtoo crazy or too fancy to talk
  about other than having ultrawide, the ability to get a lot
  of the sky and the foreground,picking out that foreground
  element and then usingtraditional composition
  
  (24:31):
  techniques like the rule thirds,like leading lines, like things
  like the Fibonacci spiral.
  Another really key benefit of anultra wide angle lens, even
  using that at its maximum ultrawide capabilities, is when
  you're out there.
  I've said this several timesthat you're in the cold, you're
  fussing with mittens on, itmight be windy, it's kind of
  
  (24:52):
  dark, you've got a headlamp on.
  It's really kind of tricky andchallenging to get the shot.
  You know you're looking throughyour viewfinder, but
  everything's dark, right, it'snight.
  Your shot is probably not goingto be completely perfectly flat
  on the horizon.
  You're probably going to needto crop and straighten a little
  bit and so, by shooting widerthan you really need, that
  allows you to use thatstraightening tool in Lightroom
  
  (25:12):
  or Photoshop.
  It will bring in the edges alittle bit, but you're not going
  to lose all that much of yourscene and, more importantly, if
  you have that much more of yourscene to lose, it's just going
  to make for a better finalresult.
  So ultra wide is also reallygood for the inevitable error in
  setting up a shot, maybe notperfectly straight with the
  horizon or the ground.
  The other big thing with yourforeground element is how close
  
  (25:33):
  is it to you?
  So we've already talked aboutshooting on these fast apertures
  like F 2.8, maybe even maybeeven faster, like F 1.4, if
  that's something that you havethe ability of even F4, you want
  to make sure that your focuswill get the foreground element
  in focus as well as some of thebackground as well.
  So we're going to get intofocusing next, because this is
  
  (25:55):
  one of the hardest parts ofNorthern Lights photography, of
  where to focus and how to focus.
  But one thing I want to set youup for is when you have that
  foreground element in place.
  I don't want you to be right upon it, I don't want you to be
  feet from it, I want it to be alittle bit farther back.
  So your plane of focus allowsthat to be in focus as well as
  what might be behind it.
  Let's say you're photographingan igloo in front of a stand of
  
  (26:15):
  trees, in front of some moretrees in the background.
  You don't want to be shootingat F 2.8, focus in the
  background trees and haveeverything else slightly blurred
  , or focus on your exactforeground, like the TP, like
  the igloo, and then everythingelse be slightly blurred in the
  background.
  If you can put yourself awayfrom these objects a little bit
  more, that will allow these verythin slices of focus that we
  
  (26:37):
  would have at 2.8.
  F 2.8 to allow more of thescene, more the foreground and
  the mid ground to be in focus,not to mention the background,
  the aurora itself.
  Let's immediately go into how tofocus, because this is a really
  , really key thing.
  There's a bit of, even with myguide buddies.
  There are two schools ofthought on how to focus for
  
  (26:57):
  northern lights.
  One is to put your lens oninfinity focus, so basically
  focusing into the extremedistance, and this is very
  logical and kind of obvious.
  Right, you're photographingsomething, the aurora that's
  like 60 miles away from you.
  Yes, it is 60 miles in theatmosphere.
  So you know infinity is a wayto go.
  Now, that's all well and good,but I personally use a different
  
  (27:21):
  technique where I focus on theforeground, maybe at the expense
  of the sharpness of the auroraitself.
  But let's go back into theinfinity focus.
  One the the challenges I seethere is that if you focus on
  infinity, that might mean yourforeground element, like all
  these beautiful things we'retalking about the stand of trees
  , the igloo, the teepee, thebuilding, the car, the person if
  
  (27:42):
  you focus on the infinity andnot focus on the foreground,
  your foreground element might beblurred.
  And since your foregroundelement stands out in the photo,
  it's the closest thing to theviewer, it's likely one of the
  biggest components of the scene.
  If that thing is blurred,you're going to have a little
  bit of a tough time making thata great photo.
  So I really am very sensitiveto that.
  
  (28:04):
  I'm also sensitive to the factthat infinity focus.
  When you look on your lens ringand you dial it all the way one
  direction, you'll see a littleinfinity symbol.
  The actual infinity is just ahair tick inside of that extent,
  like, in other words, you can'tdial your ring all the way
  until it stops and say, oh,that's the most distant.
  That's actually like superinfinity.
  
  (28:25):
  So to know your own lens andknow your own exact infinity
  settings oftentimes the infinitysetting has to be just at the
  hash mark inside the infinityline itself.
  And every lens I've played withis a little bit different.
  And I do know guide buddiesthat will actually take a marker
  or put a piece of tape on theirlens so they know exactly where
  
  (28:46):
  their own infinity is for theirlens itself.
  But you can see how these arestumbling blocks.
  If you're not really familiarwith your lens, if you're not
  really familiar with NorthernLights photography, these are
  real kind of tricky challenges.
  So that, combined with the factthat I ultimately want my
  foreground element in focus,that's the most important thing
  
  (29:07):
  to me.
  I go with foreground focusversus infinity focus.
  So let me give you my patented,tried and true technique.
  It's not patented, but I don'tknow.
  If you're a patent attorney,contact me, we'll.
  We'll have a chat.
  Just kidding, I give this awayfor free, right?
  So my way of photographing theAurora and focusing is to do
  this, okay.
  So I'm set up.
  
  (29:27):
  Remember, I've got out earlierin the day or early in the
  evening and I've figured out,okay, that stand of spruce trees
  is my foreground element.
  That's what I want in crisp,sharp focus.
  Great.
  So I set up my tripod and whatI'm doing when I come out to
  photograph the Aurora is I willneed to ensure that focus is
  locked on.
  Maybe I already focused duringthe daylight, but you know, just
  
  (29:48):
  to be safe.
  Okay, so here is my tried andtrue technique for focusing
  while photographing Aurora.
  What I do is when I'm out infront of my scene, you know, I
  have my spruce trees or mybuilding or whatever it might be
  , and it is in the dark.
  We're shooting at night.
  What I'm going to do is I'mgoing to have my flashlight on.
  I'm going to have the row ofphotographers all sort of in
  
  (30:11):
  unison, knowing I'm going toshine a flashlight on these
  spruce trees.
  I'm going to have my lens onautofocus and I'm going to use
  my shutter button to autofocuson the margin, the edge of the
  spruce tree that is lit up.
  A lot of our autofocusmechanisms rely on contrast, so
  the light and the dark of thesky behind it, with the bright
  spruce tree, is what it's goingfor.
  
  (30:31):
  So you take your little middlefocusing point, align it on the
  edge of those fur needles or thetree, you know where it meets
  the horizon or meets the sky andI'm going to auto-focus on it
  and boom, you know, half asecond later it's auto-focused.
  Then, and this is the mostimportant part of it all, I'm
  going to take my lens and I'mgoing to switch from autofocus
  to manual focus and what thatdoes is that locks in that focus
  
  (30:55):
  distance to those trees for therest of the time, unless I move
  my camera or bump my autofocusring.
  So, key thing don't move theautofocus ring from this point
  on, but now recompose your shotand just know that those spruce
  trees, every single time you hitthe shutter, are going to be
  tack sharp because of thistechnique.
  And then I don't use myflashlight anymore and obviously
  
  (31:16):
  you've got to be very sensitiveto doing this.
  If you're in the middle of aphotograph and someone shines a
  light, that's going to ruin thephoto.
  So you want to do this aspeople are setting up or do it
  when there are no otherphotographers around.
  The rest of the time I'm goingto have my headlamp on a little
  red light actually.
  So I switched from white to rednow.
  So that way, if I do need tosee my setting between shots,
  
  (31:36):
  it's not going to ruin otherpeople's shots around me because
  of my small little lightilluminating my camera.
  So that allows you to get tacksharp focus each and every time.
  And then I'm going to takemultiple photos in that place
  without changing my tripodlocation, without zooming into
  my lens, just knowing that thetrees are in tack sharp focus.
  The only thing really changingmight be where I aim my camera.
  
  (31:58):
  I might put the trees in thevery bottom of my frame or I
  might make them in the middle ofmy frame.
  That won't mess around withthat focus at all, but it
  allowed me different types ofcomposition.
  But as soon as I want to movelocations, like I want to move
  my tripod forward or backward by, let's say, 10 feet, or to the
  left by 20 feet to get a newcomposition, I do have to do
  that process again.
  So it's kind of something thatis a little bit laborious.
  
  (32:22):
  This is one of the morechallenging parts of Aurora
  photography is achieving thatautofocus each and every time.
  But I promise you, by usingthat technique you get your
  foreground and tack sharp focusevery single time and it's going
  to give you glorious, gloriousresults.
  So moving on now I want to talkabout a different dimension to
  Aurora photography, and that isAurora time-lapse photography.
  
  (32:43):
  This is something that is allover the internet and something
  that I think a lot of peoplereally like to watch.
  Doing time lapse may be anotherthing.
  It's actually prettychallenging, not to mention the
  fact that it essentially ties upyour camera for 30 minutes or
  an hour while it's doing thetime lapse, so you better think
  about having a backup camera incase you want to get individual
  
  (33:03):
  photos during that time.
  So I'll say that again, timelapse is great, but it does mean
  your camera has to becontinuously taking photos on
  its own, you not takingindividual photos for the entire
  duration of that time lapse,but nevertheless it produces
  amazing results, and most of thequote-unquote videos of Aurora
  that we see out there todayonline in various media, those
  
  (33:25):
  are not actually recorded videoin a conventional way.
  They are time lapses, meaningthat 10 second video represents
  an hour of movement of theAurora, and this is a really,
  really important thing toconsider.
  Now, if you nail it and get abeautiful time lapse of Aurora,
  it's one of the most gloriousvideos and one of the most
  beautiful things you'll see.
  So I do want to give you somebasic tips and tricks on how to
  
  (33:45):
  do this.
  So, in terms of all thesettings that I talked about,
  it's going to be the same,because essentially, what you're
  trying to do is take about ahundred photos in, you know, a
  30 minute time period.
  So, in terms of the shutterspeed and and the aperture and
  all this, you know you're notgoing to make too too many
  changes here, because you wantindividual photos to come out
  
  (34:06):
  properly exposed.
  You want your composition, yourwide, you want your focus point
  .
  Everything I told you up untilnow stays the same.
  So if you were to set yourcamera up in a beautiful area at
  the start of the Aurora andstart this time-lapse mode, the
  goal would be to let it go for,you know, 30 minutes or 60
  minutes and turn it into arelatively brief five or 10
  
  (34:28):
  second video where there's a lotof movement.
  The aurora might seem toexplode from one direction and
  dance on the horizon.
  It's really quite beautiful.
  So there's an equation out therethat essentially lets you know
  how many photos you should takeand what is the duration.
  More importantly, what is theduration between each photo?
  Now, many cameras will have thefeature that allows you to set
  
  (34:50):
  your camera on multipleexposures or let it just
  continuously run and take photoafter photo after photo.
  This is called intervalometer,or an intervalometer tool is
  something you attach to yourcamera to allow it to do this.
  Years ago, before cameras hadthis built in, I used to have a
  little intervalometer that I hadto plug in my camera and dial
  in all these settings.
  But nowadays, most camerasallow you to do this and you
  
  (35:12):
  have to set a few things.
  One you have to set theduration, like how long will
  your camera keep on takingphotos?
  I like to say just infinite,just keep it going until I go
  and tell it to stop.
  And then, more importantly, youhave to tell it the duration
  between each photo.
  The equation out there is you'regoing to want to figure out how
  long do you want your ultimatevideo to be.
  Like you know, you don't wantto create a time lapse, that's
  
  (35:35):
  you know 45 seconds for someoneto watch, like that's too long
  to share online.
  Or to put you know to givesomeone your phone and have them
  look at it.
  So you want to say, well, okay,five or 10 seconds.
  So five or 10 seconds is apretty good total time for your
  ultimate time lapse.
  Now you have to do a little bitof math here.
  So if you want a five or 10second video, every second takes
  
  (35:56):
  about 24 photos to cyclethrough.
  In other words, if you put 24photos back to back in one
  second, that is what we callvideo.
  Most videos are 24 P orsometimes 30 frames a second.
  But if you get 24 frames asecond all in sequence, you
  essentially are able to showthis time-lapse video.
  So if you want a 10 secondvideo, 24 seconds, so 10 second
  
  (36:19):
  video at 24 frames a second is240 frames exactly.
  So then you have to figure outhow long does this 10 second
  video represent, in other words,how much time has gone by in
  real time that this 10 secondvideo now represents?
  It might be 30 minutes, itmight be 10 minutes.
  You know one second per minute.
  
  (36:40):
  So you want to figure out howlong does this now 10 second
  final time lapse actuallyrepresent in real time?
  And there's no magic amount oftime.
  It really depends on theactivity of the Aurora, your own
  patients, but I think somethinglike 30 minutes, 60 minutes is
  a pretty good bell weather.
  I do know some photo guidesthat set their camera up at the
  beginning of the night and theyturn it off at the end of the
  
  (37:00):
  night.
  So we're talking about hoursand that's obviously a really
  good fail, safe for making sureit is on this time lapse mode
  while the Aurora is reallykicking on.
  But typically, if you'relooking at a one-hour Aurora
  show that you turn into 10seconds.
  The equation is one hour is 60minutes, 60 seconds per minute.
  So 60 times 60, which is 3,600seconds divided by that 240, and
  
  (37:26):
  then you get your intervalbetween each shot.
  So I think that might be 15second intervals.
  I don't know, I'm just thinkingabout this.
  So 3,600 divided by 24 timestotal number of seconds of your
  end video is the equation.
  I'll put this in the show notesfor sure.
  Last little bit I'll tell you isif you want to do a time lapse,
  I highly recommend switchingfrom raw to JPEG.
  
  (37:47):
  You can go in with advancedprograms like Adobe After
  Effects and some really slickvideo editing programs and you
  can edit your raws.
  So the photos are a little bitbetter, but gosh, it is.
  That is a really, really projob to do that.
  Plus that many raw photosyou're talking about maybe
  hundreds, if not 1000s of rawphotos is going to really
  deplete your memory card.
  So I do recommend going inturning your raw photos into
  
  (38:10):
  JPEG.
  So every photo is a JPEG and,most importantly, do not forget
  to turn it back from JPEG to rawat the end of the night,
  because then the next day youdon't want to forget and have
  every photo for the rest of thetrip be in JPEG if you are a raw
  photographer and like to edityour photos.
  So really, really key thingthere.
  Okay, at long last I wanted toget to phone photography.
  
  (38:32):
  This is gonna be the quickestand easiest section, because all
  these phones will automaticallyadjust to night mode.
  All you really need to do is bein a great location at a great
  time of year with some greatforeground elements, doing all
  the compositional stuff I wastalking about, and putting your
  phone in that area, maybe usingan ultra wide lens, if your
  
  (38:52):
  camera has that capability andthen hitting the shutter and
  keeping your phone as still aspossible while that little timer
  times out.
  Usually it's just one second,which is absolutely wild because
  if you think about the amountof time we need on our bigger,
  fancier cameras 10, 15,sometimes even 20 second
  exposures the software in thesephones that enable that is
  pretty slick and pretty amazing.
  
  (39:13):
  Now the thing is that thesephones are not going to produce
  results that you were going tonecessarily frame on your wall
  or blow up to 24 by 36 inches ina framed photo, but they are
  going to produce something thatdocuments the experience very
  well.
  They're going to producesomething great for social media
  .
  They're going to producesomething great if you have a
  little post-trip little photobook you're going to make, but
  they're going to look likethey're from a phone.
  
  (39:34):
  They're going to be a littlebit dim, they're not going to be
  quite as vibrant, the colorsaren't going to be quite as
  sharp, but nevertheless, just byholding your phone there for
  about a second, some of thesephones will have two little
  crosshairs that you have to lineup just to allow you to keep
  your phone more still.
  If you want to go next leveland put your phone on a tripod,
  all the better, but there's alot of stabilization software in
  
  (39:54):
  your phones that will do thisfor you.
  So again, just about everyphone out there in the last
  three years your Google Pixels,your iPhones, your Galaxies, all
  this sort of stuff in the lastfew years so, like iPhone 14,
  yeah, iphone 14 and up prettydarn good giving you these
  
  (40:15):
  results.
  So the final thing I want totalk about is going to be my
  gear.
  What do I personally have tophotograph the Aurora?
  I have a full frame camera,which does make a big difference
  .
  Full frame means bigger sensor.
  It means it allows you to gethigher ISO, which means I can
  let in more light with a verysimilar lens compared to a crop
  frame.
  I have a Canon R5 and I shootwith a 15 to 35 f2.8 lens.
  
  (40:39):
  It's a magical, magical lensfor Aurora, because 15
  millimeters in a full framecamera is kind of like 10
  millimeters in a crop frame andit's very, very wide.
  I can get a lot of theforeground, a lot of the sky,
  and that f2.8 allows me to notreally have to worry very much
  about the lighting conditions.
  F2.8 is fast.
  I keep on saying, choose ultrawide or ultra fast, but the
  
  (41:00):
  15-35mm f2.8 allows you to do itboth.
  So this is where I say, if youare going on a specialized
  Aurora photo trip, it may beworth considering renting a lens
  .
  I know Nikon has their ownequivalent of a 14 to 24 f 2.8.
  Sony has a 16 to 35 2.8, canon15 to 35 2.8.
  They are really, really gamechangers when it comes to
  
  (41:21):
  getting the best, the mostprofessional, the highest
  quality Aurora photographs outthere.
  I also have two differenttripods.
  I have a Manfrotto, carbonfiber.
  The legs are three segments ofextension.
  Honestly, you could probablyget away with just a two-segment
  tripod.
  It's a little bit more sturdy,a little bit heavier, a little
  bit bigger, but more sturdy.
  My other tripod is a PeakDesign travel tripod carbon
  
  (41:42):
  fiber.
  It is a little bit morelightweight but it has a hook on
  the bottom of it that can hanga backpack and actually weigh it
  down further that way.
  Way it's less likely to sway inthe wind or any sort of breeze
  that might be coming through.
  So I really love those two.
  And then, yeah, just make sure Ihave a good.
  Yeah.
  And then the last thing is justmaking sure you have some
  really good batteries.
  
  (42:02):
  Yeah, and the last thing isjust making sure you have a
  couple extra batteries.
  Batteries do die a bit fasterin the cold, but, as we've
  learned from a previous podcastwith Eddie Savage, he believes
  that as these cameras are on andthe sensors are, batteries do
  tend to die a little bit fasterif they're in extreme cold
  conditions, but probably not asfast as you think.
  So I think maybe threebatteries total one in camera
  
  (42:23):
  and two fresh and ready to go isreally the best way to do it.
  I certainly would bring abackup battery at very least,
  and two is better than one.
  Okay, we're now on to ourlistener question, and the
  question comes in today of whatdo you think about multi purpose
  wide angle zoom telephotos likeyour 18 to 300s, your 18 to
  400s?
  They seem to be one stop shoplenses that can do it all.
  
  (42:45):
  You don't have to change yourlenses and they produce pretty
  good results.
  What are your thoughts?
  So I don't have one, and thereason is because I think
  there's higher quality in thephoto.
  There's higher quality in theaperture range if you have
  several lenses that cover thatrange.
  So, in other words, here's anexample.
  
  (43:05):
  So if I have an 18 to 400, myaperture range in that is
  probably gonna be something likeF 3.5 to F 6.3.
  And what that means is, as Icontinually zoom in from 18 to
  400, my minimum aperture or Ishould say my maximum aperture,
  my smallest F number is going tobe variable.
  It's going to get higher andhigher and higher as I zoom in.
  
  (43:26):
  Now, f 6.3 for 400 isn't tootoo bad, but you'll notice that
  even midway down the range, my200 millimeter might be f5.6.
  And I have a 7200 millimeterf2.8, which gives me four times
  the amount of light and it'sjust a significantly better lens
  .
  So they are great lenses.
  
  (43:46):
  If you do want to go superlightweight, if you're okay
  sacrificing some of the apertureand some of the ability to
  shoot in dim conditions, or ifyou do want to go super
  lightweight, if you're okaysacrificing some of the aperture
  and some of the ability toshoot in dim conditions, or if
  you're okay with a little bit oflack of sharpness in your
  photos, prime lenses are alwaysgoing to be your sharpest option
  .
  They have no zoom range.
  A 35 millimeter prime onlyshoots at 35, 50 millimeter,
  only 50, 100, only 100.
  They're always going to be yoursharpest option because the
  
  (44:08):
  entire set of optics areoptimized for that exact range.
  As your zoom range gets moreand more and more, you lose
  quality throughout an entirerange, throughout that entire
  spectrum.
  So you have to really go intoit, knowing that you're kind of
  not getting the best of the best.
  And if that's okay with you,and if it's more important to be
  ultra lightweight, if it's moreimportant to you to save time
  
  (44:30):
  and not changing lenses, whichis a huge benefit.
  To not have to change lenses,then they are okay.
  They're also in some cases,quite expensive, which is
  something that you know.
  You can wrap your head aroundin some cases, but if you do see
  one of these maximumversatility ranges that are very
  inexpensive, you know thatyou're probably sacrificing more
  
  (44:50):
  quality than you're ready to dobecause they should be
  expensive if they're giving youall those capabilities and being
  sharp throughout.
  All right, folks, there we go.
  End of the episode, a deep diveinto Northern Lights photography
  .
  I want to remind you a coupleof quick things.
  If you head over to my website,courtwhalencom, you can sign up
  for my e-newsletter, and I dosend out blogs and articles on
  photography and my adventuresevery couple of weeks, so I'd
  
  (45:13):
  love to have you be a subscriberthere.
  In addition, I'd like to hearyour listener questions.
  You can shoot me an email atwildphotographerpodcast at
  gmailcom, and I'll get thoseanswered on air.
  You can also head over to myYouTube channel, courtwhalencom.
  Leave a comment there, let meknow how you like the podcast,
  submit questions, thoughts,ideas, also maybe some
  inspiration for new episodes.
  
  (45:33):
  And, at very last, I want tothank you for listening today
  and I hope you get up there andshoot some Aurora here in the
  not too distant future.
  It's gonna be a great seasonahead of us, and I wish you the
  best of luck.