How to Photograph the Northern Lights?

The people of Húsavík are quite used to seeing the sky light up in green at night, and this is the reason many people visit our town during the winter months. Due to a huge solar flare two nights ago, a large part of the northern hemisphere now has a chance to enjoy this spectacle tonight on Halloween.

Here are a few tips from Icelandic photographers on how to best capture the show.

  • Set your aperture to the widest your lens offers (f/1.4, f/1.8 or f/2.8) and adjust the ISO setting to either at least 1600.
  • Set your  shutter speed to somewhere between 1 to 30 seconds and adjust your white balance to 3500 kelvin.

For the best result, it is good to set the focus to infinity or to focus on a distant object. Finally, to avoid shaking, set a shutter delay of 1 or 2 seconds. Enjoy the show tonight. We look forward to seeing your photos tomorrow.

Photo by Julentto Photography