Aurora Borealis
Witnessing nature’s most incredible light displays remains a foremost highlight of my life.
While I’ve caught faint shimmers of northern lights in the skies many times, I hadn’t caught it on camera until AUG 29, 2022.
Funny story…I was shooting the Milky Way at Gap Lake near Canmore. I packed up around midnight to head for Calgary. Rounding a bend, movement to the left caught my eye and the aurora was blanketing Yamnuska. I pulled over and snapped some shots but the pics looked all black. In a panic, I got out my iPhone. Once home I discovered the DLSR lens cap was still on!
Time-lapses are one of my favourite ways to photograph the aurora.
Time-lapses are one of my favourite ways to photograph the aurora. the technique is to shoot at least 30 minutes of still images, then merge them into a time-lapse. that way you have each frame as a high quality image and a time lose of the aurora’s motion.
Want to capture the aurora? Get out there!
Since that night in AUG 2022, I’ve been blessed with more than 35 opportunities to capture the aurora (with my lens cap off). The biggest aurora storm being a G5 storm on MAR 10/11 2024.
Some of my other favourites include the Elk island aurora in DEC 2023 which pulsated as it drifted over me during 5 hours of shooting. I stood in my crocs in cold swamp waters as beavers hungrily chewed nearby. Another moment was discovering that I could capture the aurora with a 70-200mm zoom lens after my wide angle lens failed (see “Flow” in the gallery below). And yet another was while camping on the wide open prairies during the Perseids meteor shower, and was rewarded with both massive red auroras filling the skies and 80+ meteors. What a night!
Capturing the aurora with a DLSR camera takes practice, a wide angle lens, sturdy tripod, and a remote shutter trigger.
If you have an intervalometer (remote timed shutter release), you can set it to keep snapping pics while you’re watching the aurora overhead. First thing to note is that the aurora is different EVERY time it visits. Brighter, faster, duller, slower, nearby or overhead, or far in the distance. So, you’ll need to be ready to adjust your settings and your gear.
My recommended default camera settings are: 12mm, f2.8, ISO 1600, 6 seconds. Then, adjust depending on how fast and bright the aurora is. Generally speaking, faster moving auroras mean faster shutter speeds, slower moving means longer exposures. At times, I’ve dropped to 2 seconds, ISO 400 as the aurora was so bright and fast moving (the Cartwright Lake event) where it was so bright the aurora washed out the stars! At other times, I’ve switched to a longer 70mm zoom lens to capture it on a distant horizon, stretching the time out to 10 or more seconds. Don’t be afraid to experiment, just be sure you are in focus!
Farmyard Swirl
Burmisanu
Aurora Corona
Flow
Emerald River- Purple Mist
Aurora Curtains- Twin Valley Aurora (G4)
Check out my Elk Island Aurora time lapse.
Technical aspects of this aurora borealis shoot.
Two cameras. Both the Nikon D780 and the Nikon D810 shooting in full frame (FX). Single captures (2,200 in total). Some were later sequenced into time-lapse videos at 24 frames per second. For the D810, I mounted a Tokina at-X PRO 16-28mm F2.8 FX Lens and an intervalometer on a sturdy Manfrotto tripod. The D810’s 36.6 megapixel sensor captures excellent detail.
For the Nikon D780, I mounted my favourite wide angle lens, the Sigma 14-24mm, attached an intervalometer, and set it on a Manfrotto tripod. The D780’s 24.5 megapixel sensor captures light exceptionally well. Its viewfinder features touch controls, peak banding display for accurate focus, and adjusted angle preview screen.
All images shot in Manual mode…exposures ranged between 2 to 8 seconds with ISO ranging between 3200 and 500 at times as the aurora’s brightness varied greatly. All images were captured at f/2.8, shot in RAW format (NEF), and lightly edited using Camera RAW, Topaz De-noise, and Topaz Sharpen tools. Otherwise, very little editing was done.