How to photograph the northern lights: a guide for phones and cameras

Updated October 13, 2026.

Learning how to photograph the northern lights takes less gear than most people think. A modern phone on a tripod can capture a good display, and a camera with a fast wide lens can capture a great one. This guide covers both, from your first Night mode shot to time-lapses, blended foregrounds and the settings pros use.

• Planning the shoot
• Phone photography
• Camera settings
• Focusing
• Composition
• Advanced techniques
• Editing
• Common mistakes
• Troubleshooting
• Cold and safety
• Gear checklist

Plan the shoot before you go out

Most of what makes a northern lights photo work is decided before you pick up the camera.

• Check the forecast. Use the northern lights forecast for tonight and the 3-day forecast to pick your night. Our guide to the Kp you need shows what to expect from your location.
• Choose a dark site. Get away from streetlights and city glow. A clear horizon toward the pole (north in the northern hemisphere) helps you catch aurora that is only low in the sky, but an open view overhead and to the sides matters too when a display is active.
• Watch cloud and Moon. Cloud hides the aurora, so pick the clearest window. A new Moon gives the darkest sky, while a bright Moon washes out faint aurora, though it can nicely light a foreground.
• Scout in daylight. Find a spot with something interesting in the foreground, such as trees, a lake, a barn, mountains or a lone cabin, and work out where north is.
• Be there early. Aurora is often most active around local midnight, but activity varies a lot from night to night. Arrive early with your gear ready, give your eyes time to adapt, and keep checking the forecast through the night instead of waiting for a set time.

How to photograph the northern lights with a phone

Modern phones combine several frames into one bright, low-noise image, so you can get real results without a camera. The main limits are the small sensor and software that is designed for still scenes, not for moving aurora.

Setting up

• Use a tripod or prop the phone firmly. Night modes need a steady phone for several seconds, and most shots fail because of shake. A small tripod with a phone clamp is cheap and makes the biggest difference.
• Start with the main camera. On most phones it has a larger sensor and brighter aperture than the ultra-wide, so it is usually cleaner in the dark, but this varies by model. Take a test shot with each lens and compare. The ultra-wide fits more sky but is often noisier.
• Turn off the flash and Live Photo, and avoid digital zoom when it visibly softens the picture or adds noise.
• Trigger without touching. Use the 3-second timer, a volume button or a Bluetooth remote.

Phone settings

• Night mode. On most phones this switches on automatically in the dark. On a tripod it can expose for several seconds up to about half a minute, and for fast-moving aurora a shorter exposure often keeps more detail. Some phones let you change the exposure time manually.
• Pro or manual mode. If your phone offers it, try ISO 800 to 3200 and a shutter of 2 to 10 seconds. Shoot RAW if available.
• Focus. Tap on a distant light or a bright star and lock focus. If the phone has a manual focus slider, set it to infinity and check the result.
• Astrophotography modes. Some phones have a mode that combines frames over several minutes. Check how long yours actually exposes. Aurora can move a lot in that time, so for fast displays prefer shorter exposures or a manual camera app, and compare the result with the normal Night mode.
• Take several shots. Try different exposure times and check each result by zooming in.

Examples by phone

Features differ by brand and model, so check your own phone’s camera settings.

• iPhone. Night mode switches on automatically in the dark. On a tripod, tapping the Night mode icon lets you change the exposure time. RAW is available on models that support ProRAW, and third-party camera apps add manual ISO and shutter controls.
• Google Pixel. Night Sight handles most scenes, and the astrophotography mode takes a longer exposure. Try both and keep the one that holds the aurora’s shape best.
• Samsung and other Android phones. Look for Night mode and a Pro or Expert RAW mode that lets you set ISO, shutter speed and focus yourself.

Phones lose battery quickly in the cold, so keep yours in an inside pocket between shots, and carry a small power bank.

Best camera settings for northern lights photography

A camera with a larger sensor and a fast wide lens gives cleaner, sharper results. Use these as starting points and adjust to the sky in front of you.

These are starting points, not fixed settings. The right values depend on how bright the aurora is, how fast it moves, your lens speed, your sensor and how much detail you want to keep, so check your histogram and adjust.

• What each control does. Aperture and shutter speed set how much light reaches the sensor. ISO amplifies the signal afterwards, which brightens the image but also adds noise, so use the widest aperture and the longest shutter the aurora’s movement allows before raising the ISO.
• Mode and format. Use manual mode and shoot RAW. RAW gives you far more room to fix white balance and noise afterwards.
• White balance. Auto often gives a cold blue cast. Try 3500 to 4500 K, or set it later when editing RAW files.
• Shutter speed is about movement. Longer exposures are brighter but blur the shape of the aurora. Faster shutters freeze the curtains and pillars, at the cost of higher ISO.
• Turn off image stabilisation on the tripod.
• Long-exposure noise reduction is a trade-off. When it is on, the camera takes a second, dark frame after each shot to cancel hot pixels, which doubles the time per shot. Switch it off when you need to shoot continuously, such as for fast aurora or a time-lapse, and clean up noise in editing. Leave it on for single, slow frames if you can afford the wait.
• Check the histogram. Aurora is mostly green and the green channel clips easily, so make sure the brightest parts are not blown out.

Stars and the shutter speed limit

Stars become short streaks if the exposure is too long. Two old rules of thumb estimate the limit by dividing 500 (or a stricter 300) by your full-frame equivalent focal length. Both are rough: the result depends on your sensor’s resolution, how closely you zoom in and where the stars are in the sky, and modern high-resolution cameras often show trailing at the 500 rule. Photographers who want sharper stars can use the more detailed NPF rule, which several photography calculators include. These limits are about the motion of the stars, not the aurora, and because aurora moves you will often use shorter exposures anyway.

For APS-C cameras, multiply your focal length by the crop factor (about 1.5) first.

How to focus in the dark

Out-of-focus shots are the most common failure. Autofocus struggles at night, and the infinity mark on a lens is often not accurate.

1. Switch the lens to manual focus.
2. Turn on live view and point at a bright star, a planet or a distant light.
3. Magnify the view to the maximum and turn the focus ring until the star is the smallest possible point.
4. Take a test shot and zoom in on the preview to check. Tape the focus ring or lock it so it doesn’t move.
5. Check again if the temperature drops a lot or you change lenses.

Composition: what makes a northern lights photo stand out

• Add a foreground. Aurora over empty black sky is just glow. Trees, a mountain, a cabin or a person give scale and depth.
• Use reflections. A calm lake or river doubles the colour. Wind ruins it, so check conditions.
• Think about the horizon. Keep it level, and place it low if the sky is the star, or higher if the foreground is. Rule-of-thirds placement usually works.
• Choose orientation to suit the display. Wide arcs suit landscape frames, while tall rays and an overhead corona often suit vertical frames.
• Include the stars. A sharp star field adds realism, and in late summer or autumn the Milky Way can add another layer.
• Mind your own light. Use a headlamp on red mode and avoid shining white light at the sky or at other photographers, because it ruins night vision and other people’s shots.

Advanced techniques for experienced photographers

Blend a sharp foreground with the sky

Aurora needs a short exposure, but a dark foreground needs a long one. Take your sky exposure first, then make a longer, higher-quality foreground frame. If you can, shoot a few identical foreground frames and average them to cut noise, then blend them in editing. Use focus stacking if the foreground is close. Blending is optional, and it can leave visible seams if the aurora, clouds, trees or water moved between frames, so keep the blend simple.

Time-lapse

Use an intervalometer to shoot a continuous series of frames, with a 5 to 10 second exposure and a gap of 1 to 2 seconds. For example, 300 frames at an 8-second exposure and a 2-second gap takes about 50 minutes and makes a 10-second clip at 30 frames per second. Bring spare batteries or external power, and fix the tripod firmly, with a weight if it is windy. Keep everything manual so the frames match: fixed exposure, fixed white balance and locked focus, because auto settings cause flicker from frame to frame. Make sure the memory card has room for hundreds of files. Afterwards, edit one frame, apply the same settings to the whole sequence, run a deflicker step if the brightness jumps, and render the clip at 24 to 30 frames per second.

Video

Real-time aurora video needs a low-light camera and a fast lens. Expect to use a very high ISO (often 6400 or more) with a shutter of about 1/25 to 1/50 second. Whether this works depends heavily on your camera’s low-light video quality, the lens aperture and how bright the aurora is, so test before relying on it. Results often look smoother as a time-lapse unless the aurora is bright.

Panoramas

Aurora changes between frames, so shoot vertical frames with 30 to 50% overlap, at the fastest shutter the light allows, and stitch them afterwards. Expect some mismatches where the curtains moved.

Pulsating aurora

Patches that blink on and off every few seconds need short exposures of 1 to 3 seconds to capture the shapes. Raise the ISO to compensate.

Skip the star tracker for aurora

A tracker keeps stars sharp but blurs the foreground, and aurora changes fast anyway. Use one only if you plan to blend separate frames.

How to edit northern lights photos

Shoot RAW and edit gently. A good edit makes the photo look like the scene felt, not like a cartoon.

1. White balance. Pick a natural-looking sky tone, then check the aurora colour is believable.
2. Exposure and contrast. Lift shadows a little, pull highlights down so the greens don’t blow out, and add gentle contrast.
3. Noise reduction. Use the denoise tool in your editor, which is much better than it used to be. Apply it lightly to keep stars and fine structure sharp.
4. Colour. Raise vibrance before saturation, and watch the green channel and any purple or magenta tinges at the lower edge.
5. Local adjustments. Brighten the foreground a little, and keep the sky darker around the aurora so it stands out.
6. Sharpen last, and zoom in to check stars and edges.

Be honest about composites. Blending your own frames is normal practice, but adding an aurora from another night is not photography, so label it clearly.

Common mistakes and how to avoid them

• Soft focus. Focus manually on a star and check by zooming in.
• Exposures that are too long, which smear the aurora into a blur. Shorten the shutter when the aurora is moving.
• Leaving the camera on auto, which tends to choose slow shutters and blown highlights.
• A shaky tripod. Weigh it down in wind and don’t touch the camera during the shot.
• A bright camera screen, which ruins your night vision. Turn the brightness down.
• A dead battery. Cold drains them fast, so carry spares in an inside pocket.
• Over-processing. Heavy saturation and clarity make aurora look fake and bring out noise.
• Judging by your eyes. A camera gathers light for seconds, so photos show stronger colour than you see in person. Don’t give up if it looks faint.

Troubleshooting: what to change

Staying warm and safe

• Dress in layers, with insulated boots, a warm hat and gloves with thin liners so you can use the controls. Hand warmers help a lot.
• Prevent condensation. Before you take a cold camera into a warm room, seal it in a bag so it warms up slowly and doesn’t fog inside.
• Keep the lens clear. Use a lens hood, and a lens heater strap if frost or dew is a problem.
• Stay safe. Tell someone where you are going and when you expect to be back, charge your phone, and remember that remote sites may have no signal. Check the weather and wind chill, because conditions can change quickly. Never stop on a road to shoot, stay well back from shorelines, ice edges and cliffs in the dark, and watch for wildlife. Respect private land.

Northern lights photography gear checklist

• Camera and wide, fast lens, or a phone with Night mode
• Sturdy tripod, and a phone clamp if needed
• Remote release or intervalometer
• Spare batteries, kept warm, and a power bank
• Red-light headlamp
• Warm clothing, gloves with liners, and hand warmers
• Lens cloth, a hood and sealable bags
• A thermos and snacks

Ready to go out? Check the live forecast to pick your night, then use the cloud and Moon information to choose your timing.

Further reading

• NOAA SWPC: Tips for viewing the aurora