How to Photograph the Northern Lights When You Have Zero Photography Skills

How to Photograph the Northern Lights with ZERO Photography Skills

ByNausheen Farishta

We can all picture it: standing cold yet excited in the middle of nowhere, likely somewhere surrounded by hills or on the water. Suddenly, the sky is ablaze with dancing green lights. We sigh in awe, thank our lucky stars for the show and silently cross ‘see the Northern Lights’ off our bucket lists. That’s certainly what we were expecting to experience on our visit to Iceland.

Reality check?

The Northern Lights in person look nothing like they do in all the photos you’ve seen floating around. In reality[emaillocker], unless you catch them on an incredibly strong night you may not see much at all with the naked eye. In scientific terms, this has to do with the way the cones and rods in our eyes take in light and color. But, I’m not a scientist so I’ll spare you additional reasoning.

Anyway, I had prepared for this. If we had a chance at seeing the Northern Lights, I wanted to photograph it. But how to photograph the northern lights?

How to Photograph the Northern Lights

I reviewed some guides, vowed to play around with the manual settings on our DSLR, bought a tripod and then — never got around to practicing.

As we waited in the hotel lobby for our Northern Lights tourbus (see here for which tour we booked), I rapidly read through suggested camera settings online for how to photograph the northern lights and Imtiaz put them into play on the camera. We were as ready as we could be and I sensed we needed a backup. So? Some quick research led me to a 99-cent app called Northern Lights Photo Taker.

Let me tell you, that was the best 99 cents I’ve ever spent. In the app, you simply select whether the Northern Lights are weak, moderate, or strong and it adjusts your phone’s camera settings accordingly. If you want to play around with custom settings, you have that option as well.

Thank goodness for my frazzled discovery of that app. Our DSLR settings were off and the best photos of the lights we have were taken on this app. I did rest my phone on our tripod for a steadier shot though, so not all preparations were for naught!

What we saw with the naked eye that night were several streaks of green glowing across the sky. But, photographs truly bring to life the movements and shapes of the aurora. It was fun to be able to point a camera at a section of the green glow and uncover its true look on the screen.

Even if you’re familiar with shooting in manual mode on your camera, nighttime shots are a whole different ball game. I highly recommend this app as a plan B (or plan A!) for anyone hoping to capture memories of a Northern Lights sighting. While they may not be frame-worthy, they’re a beautiful reminder of the experience.

Happy shooting!

The number one tip for photographing the Northern Lights for the amateur photographer

Fool-proof way to photograph the northern lights even with zero photography skills![/emaillocker]

Nausheen is a solo female traveler who is passionate about travel as a way to increase self love and confidence. She focuses on slow travel and bouts of digital nomadism, and has experience living abroad across several continents. As a post-divorce, South Asian woman in her 30s Nausheen aims to empower fellow women of color in particular to live life on their own terms. She shares travel itineraries, tips and inspiration on her blog and social media channels.