The short version: set your focus to infinity, open your aperture as wide as it goes (around f/2.8), set ISO 1600 and a shutter speed of about 10 seconds. Take a test shot, look at it, and adjust from there. The rest of this guide explains why those settings work and what to change when the photo on the back of your camera doesn’t look right.
For a lot of photographers, the northern lights are the photograph. The one that has been on the list for years. It can feel daunting the first time, standing in the dark with cold fingers and a camera full of buttons you’ve never touched. The good news is that most of what goes wrong on a first aurora night comes down to a handful of settings and a bit of preparation. You don’t need expensive gear and you don’t need a science degree. I’ve kept this as simple as I can.
Why your camera sees more than you do
The reason you need a camera at all is that in low light our eyes switch over to rod cells to see. Rod cells are brilliant at picking up dim light, but they barely register colour, so at night we see the world mostly in shades of grey. Cameras don’t have that limitation. On top of that, a long exposure lets the camera gather light for several seconds at a time, so it records far more than your eye can in a single moment.
What you’ll actually see depends on where you are
What you see with your own eyes here in Ireland and the UK can be completely different from what you’d see in the Nordics. Most of the time here, the aurora shows up as a faint white or grey glow low on the northern horizon, sometimes with a hint of green. It’s easy to mistake for cloud or the glow from a distant town, a bit like those glow-in-the-dark stars you might have had on your bedroom ceiling as a kid. Point your camera at it, though, and the screen lights up green and sometimes pink.
Further north, in places like Lofoten or Lapland, you’re much closer to where the aurora happens. Displays are more frequent, often brighter, and can stretch right across the sky above you. On a good night you can see greens, whites, pinks, blues and even reds with your own eyes, and the curtains move quickly enough to watch them ripple. But not every night up there is like that. A weak display in Lapland can look just as faint and grey as a typical night here.
That’s the thing with the aurora. No two nights are the same, and so many things can make it different from the last. How strong the display is matters most. During a really big storm, like the one in May 2024, the red was clear to the naked eye right across Ireland and the UK. How dark it is matters too. A bright moon, a nearby town or a set of headlights can wash out a faint display completely. And your own eyes play a part, because they need time to adjust to the dark, and one look at your phone sets you back.
So don’t judge the night by what you can see. If there’s a faint glow to the north and the forecast is up, take a test shot. The camera will tell you what’s there.
Step 1: Get your gear sorted
You don’t need much, but each piece matters.
A camera you can control manually. Any DSLR or mirrorless camera that lets you choose your own settings will do the job. Phones have come a long way too. The photo below was taken on a Samsung S23 in Night Mode, sitting on a tripod. If a phone is all you have, use it.
A wide-angle lens that lets in plenty of light. The aperture number on your lens tells you how much light it can let in, and the lower the number, the more light gets through. Something around f/2.8 or lower is ideal. If you only have a kit lens that opens to f/3.5 or f/4, don’t let that stop you. You’ll just need a slightly higher ISO or a slightly longer exposure.
A tripod. This one isn’t optional. Your shutter will be open for several seconds, and if the camera moves even a little in that time, the whole image goes soft. Hand-holding simply doesn’t work.
A remote or the self-timer. Pressing the shutter button with your finger shakes the camera. A cheap remote does the job, or just set the 2-second timer so the camera has settled before the photo is taken.
Spare batteries. Cold drains batteries far faster than you’d expect. Keep the spares in an inside pocket close to your body so they stay warm.
Step 2: Where to photograph the northern lights
You need two things. You need to be somewhere the aurora can reach, and you need dark skies.
The further north you are, the better your chances. Northern Norway, Iceland, Finnish Lapland, Canada and Alaska see the aurora regularly through the winter. But it’s not unusual to photograph it in the UK and Ireland when conditions line up. On the north coast, places like Malin Head in Donegal, Binevenagh, Mussenden Temple and the Giant’s Causeway are all popular for good reason. They face north, they’re away from town lights, and they give you something interesting to put in front of the sky.
Light pollution is the thing that catches beginners out. A town ten miles away can wash out a faint display completely, so look for spots where the view north is dark. In Scotland, the Highlands and islands like Skye are excellent. In Iceland, honestly, almost anywhere works once you’re away from the towns. In Norway, Tromsø and the Lofoten Islands are hard to beat.
And sometimes it turns up where you least expect it. In May 2024, during a huge solar storm, I was on a photography tour in Slovenia and we photographed the northern lights over Lake Bled and in the Julian Alps. At the time I said it would probably never happen again in my lifetime. Then in November 2025 another big storm brought it back over central Europe, with sightings across Austria. It’s a good reminder to keep an eye on the forecast wherever you are.
Step 3: Check the aurora forecast (without getting lost in it)
Before I get into the numbers, here’s the tip I always give. If there’s any chance of the northern lights and the sky is clear, get outside. I’ve been chasing the aurora across Ireland, Scotland, Iceland and Norway for years, and I worked as a professional northern lights guide in Finland before starting my own tours.
Clear skies matter just as much as the aurora itself, so check a cloud forecast as well as an aurora one. For the aurora side, apps like Glendale Skye Auroras or SpaceWeatherLive are a good place to start. I use SpaceWeatherLive because I like reading the data, but you don’t need to understand all of it.
The Kp index is the number most people look at first, and also the one most people misread. It runs from 0 to 9 and measures how disturbed the Earth’s magnetic field is across the whole planet, worked out from magnetometer readings around the world over three-hour periods. It is a global value. It is not a forecast for where you’re standing, and because it’s averaged over three hours, it often lags behind what’s actually happening in the sky.
That’s why you’ll hear people say “Kp 5 for Ireland”, and why it’s only ever a rough rule of thumb. On paper, the higher the number, the further south the aurora is likely to reach. At low values it mostly stays over places like Lapland, northern Norway and Iceland, and the further south you are, the higher the number generally needs to be. It’s quite possible to get a good display here when the Kp is modest, and nothing at all when it looks promising. Treat it as a sign that something is going on, then look at the live numbers below.
If you want to go one step further, there are three live numbers worth keeping an eye on.
Bz is the direction of the magnetic field coming from the sun. When it points south, it shows up as a negative number, and that’s what you want. Think of it as the door being open for the aurora. The more negative, the better.
Solar wind speed is how fast the particles from the sun are travelling. It usually sits somewhere between 300 and 800 km/s, and can go well beyond that during a big storm. Below 400 is quiet. Above 500, things get interesting, especially if the Bz is negative at the same time.
Bt is the overall strength of that magnetic field. A higher number is better, but it only really helps when the Bz is pointing south.
To give you a real example, one night I photographed the aurora in Northern Ireland the Kp was 6, the solar wind speed was just under 500 km/s, the Bt was 16.7 and the Bz was sitting at minus 12.4. That combination, a strong field pointing firmly south, was what made it happen.
You don’t need to memorise any of this. If the app is showing high numbers and the sky is clear, that’s enough to get you out the door.
Step 4: Scout your spot in daylight
This is the step most beginners skip, and it’s the one that makes the biggest difference. If you turn up somewhere for the first time in the dark, you end up in what I call panic mode, running about like a headless chicken, photographing everything and hoping something works.
For the photo above, I visited Tamlaghtard Church a few days beforehand. I walked the grounds, worked out what I wanted in the frame and what I wanted to keep out, and found the angle I had in my head. When I came back on the night, the composition was already sorted, so I could concentrate on the sky and the settings.
For me, an aurora photo needs something in the foreground, a building, a tree, a mountain, a person. The sky on its own rarely holds attention for long. I always place that focal point first and then let the aurora fill the space around it, choosing a spot where I know the aurora is likely to appear, which is usually low in the north. If you’re not sure where to put things, the rule of thirds is a solid starting point. Put the horizon on the lower third line so the sky gets most of the frame.
Wherever you can, get to your spot and set up before it gets fully dark. Fumbling with tripod legs by torchlight is no fun.
Step 5: The best camera settings for the northern lights
Turn the dial to M for manual. It sounds intimidating, but you’re only setting three things, and once they’re set you’ll barely touch them.
Aperture: as wide as your lens goes, which means the lowest number available, f/2.8 or similar. You want as much light as possible hitting the sensor.
ISO: start at 1600. If the image is too dark, go up to 3200. Higher ISO brightens the picture but adds grain, which photographers call noise. A bit of noise is far better than a photo that’s too dark, and it’s easy to clean up later.
Shutter speed: start at around 10 seconds. This is the one you’ll adjust most. When the aurora is faint and slow, you can go longer, 15 seconds or so. When it’s bright and moving quickly, go shorter, somewhere between 2 and 5 seconds, and raise your ISO to make up for it. A long exposure on a fast-moving display smears the shapes into a green blur, while a short one keeps the beams and curtains crisp. Go much past 15 or 20 seconds and the stars start to stretch into short lines too.
File type: if your camera can shoot RAW, use it. It gives you far more room to fix brightness and colour later. With RAW, you can leave white balance on auto and sort it out afterwards.
One last thing. If your lens or camera has image stabilisation, it’s usually best to switch it off on a tripod, because on some systems it can actually introduce blur during long exposures. Some newer cameras detect the tripod and handle this for you, so it’s worth a quick look in your manual.
Step 6: How to focus your camera at night
Autofocus almost always gives up in the dark, so you’ll need to focus manually. This is the part that ruins more aurora photos than anything else, so it’s worth taking your time.
Switch your lens to manual focus. Most lenses have an infinity mark, and that’s a good starting point, but on most lenses it isn’t quite accurate. Turn on live view, find the brightest star you can see, zoom in on it on the screen, and slowly turn the focus ring until the star is as small and sharp as you can get it. Once you’ve got it, leave the focus ring alone. Some people put a small strip of tape over it so it can’t get knocked.
If you want more detail on this, I’ve written a full guide on how to focus your camera at night.
Step 7: Take a test shot and adjust
Take one photo and look at it properly before you take fifty. Zoom in on the screen and check the stars are sharp points. If they’re blurry, go back and fix your focus. Then look at the brightness. If the image is too dark, raise the ISO or lengthen the shutter. If it’s too bright, or the aurora has lost its shape, do the opposite. The histogram can help here, but if you’re new to it, the back of the screen is fine for now. If you want to understand why those three settings affect each other the way they do, my post on the exposure triangle covers it.
Once you’ve got a good exposure, relax and play. The aurora can change in seconds, brightening, fading, moving across the sky, so keep checking and keep adjusting. Try something different too. One night on the Causeway Coast I focused on a statue and let the aurora sit behind it as a soft backdrop. It’s not the classic aurora shot, and that’s the point.
Step 8: Editing your photos
A few simple adjustments in Lightroom or Photoshop make a big difference. Brighten or darken the exposure if needed, add a little contrast so the aurora stands out, adjust the white balance until the colours look natural, and use noise reduction to clean up the grain from your high ISO.
If you spend any time in aurora groups on Facebook, you’ll see comments calling photos fake and demanding to see the original. I’ve never understood that. Photography is a way of telling a story, the same as painting or writing, and nobody asks a painter to show their palette. Editing isn’t about faking a scene. It’s about showing how the moment felt to you. My own style is to keep things close to what was there, with just a touch of enhancement. Others push the colour and contrast further. Both are fine. It’s your photograph.
Before you head out
Get out of the car. It sounds obvious, but you’ll see far more of the sky standing in the open than looking through a windscreen.
Turn off your car completely, including the daytime running lights and interior lights. They’ll ruin your night vision and everyone else’s photos.
Give your eyes time to adjust. Most of it happens in the first ten minutes, but it keeps improving for twenty to thirty. A single glance at a bright phone screen resets the clock, so turn your phone brightness right down and use a red light on your head torch if it has one.
Dress for far colder than you think. You’ll be standing still for long stretches, and that’s when the cold gets in. Layers, a proper hat and hand warmers all help.
Be patient. The aurora can arrive, disappear for an hour and then come back stronger than before. Many good nights are won by the people who stayed.
And when it does happen, take a minute to put the camera down and just watch. The photographs are the reason you came, but it’s the memory of standing under it that stays with you. When was the last time you watched something without photographing it?
