Photography Guide

Here you can find information on how you can take photographs of the aurora. It's really quite easy, though like anything it takes time and some equipment. You can see an aurora ANYWHERE in the world if you're willing to give it a try.

Cameras

Ideally the best camera for taking aurora photographs is an manual SLR (Single Lens) with a wide angle lens. But you can still get good pictures with other cameras. You can find out about how you can produce good nighttime pictures with your camera and some tips and tricks below.

Equipment

You need for a minimum a camera, tripod and a shutter cable release (remote or timer control). Ideally a wide angle lens would be good too. Check out out Equipment Guide for more things you may need to take with you.

Exposure Times

I recommend a maximum exposure of 30 seconds. Any more than this and because the stars move (or rather the earth does), you start to get star trails being produced on your photographs. The bigger you make the subject, the worse the star trail effect, so avoid telephoto lenses.

Try to bracket your exposures initially, doubling each time. I.E. Take a number of photos, say 3 seconds, 7 seconds, 15 seconds, 30 seconds. When you get used to the film you're using and your camera, you can cut the number of photos down. As a guide with an 800ASA film, I use 30 seconds unless it's a full moon, in which case I'll bracket at 15 seconds as well.

Film

Film choice is very critical to aurora photography. Films vary in their emulsion quality and color rendition and the differences are very apparent at low light levels and long exposures.

Only a few films work well. Others will produce color-casts, bad grain and poor colors. For instance one film I tried (AGFA) turned all my red and green auroras to white!

Here are my testing results. Please note manufacturers quite often change the emulsion but keep the film name the same, so this information may change. If you notice this, then please contact me. The rating is out of 10, and 10 is the best.

Film Type Rating Notes

Fuji NHGII Pro 800 ASA 35mm Negative 9 The best I've found yet, good grain and color, but expensive as it's a pro film. Nice greens, red response is about 80% less than it should be. Normally only available in professional camera stores.

Fuji Superia 800 ASA 35mm Negative 7 Similar to the NHGII Pro in color rendition. Cheaper than the NHGII Pro film, and widely available. Grainy at higher magnifications.

Kodak Royal 1000 ASA 35mm Negative 6 Good color with a bias towards red. However it's very grainy. Don't use if you want an enlargment.

Agfa HDC 400 35mm Negative 1 Stay away from this. All aurora colors (green,red and blue) appear as either yellow or white. Don't even think about using this film,

Kodak Porta 100 and 400 ASA 35mm Negative 3 Only produces green, no reds. (Unusual for Kodak films)

Konica Centuria 800 ASA 35mm Negative 6 Reasonable preliminary results. Haven't had chance to test it completely. Is being used in the astronomy community, so should be up to the task.

Fuji Provia 400F 35mm Slide 9 Though I haven't evaluated this one myself, as up until now I've used negative film, from the pictures I've seen people take with it and the color rendition, it seems very good. I have a role on hand to shoot at the first oppertunity. You definately need to push this one by one stop.

Film Storage

Store your film in a plastic ZipLoc bag in your fridge. Not only does storing it like this make your film last longer (normally well past the expiry date), but it doubles the ISO rating of the film without an increase in grain when the film is cold.

Developing

The best way is to develop the films yourself, as you have good control over the process. If you don't want to do this, then take them to a good quality photo lab. You want a place that cares about your photos (not the local supermarket or chemist). Using fresh developer is critical to color rendition, so visit your photo lab as soon as they open.

It's very important to tell them:

These are astronomy photos. The negatives will show up as under-developed but they're really shots taken at night.
Make sure the lab doesn't cut your negatives, cut them yourself. The automatic machines quite often will cut the negatives in the wrong place because of the negative not showing a normal "black" picture.
If you are going to let them automatically cut your negatives, please take a few photos of daylight subjects and the beginning and end of the roll, so the machine can detect the cutting points.
Push Process by 1 stop. Because you need an exposure of around 1 minute, but you can only take 30 seconds because of star trailing, you can get the developer to develop it more than normal, so you get better image (equivalent to 1 minute). This is called push processing. I do this with all my images (including the ones I develop). Push processing increases grain though, so it's not advisable to do it by more than 1 stop.

Cold Weather Blues

Be prepared. It might be cold and windy. Check the weather at where you are going to be taking the pictures. You want clear skies.

If it's going to be cold (below -10C), be very careful when winding on the film on the camera. Static electricty within the camera can be generated by the movement of the film and can cause corresponding images from the sparks on the film. Advance the film slowly.

It's always feels colder at night, because your body should be sleeping. Always tell someone where you're going.

Composition

Seeing peoples reactions to photographs, has given me an insight into the composition people like to see. So I've come up with a few rules which I try to obey most of the time:

Always have something in the picture. People like the difference between sky and land. A picture of just sky gives no reference to scale.
So, no overhead corona shots, unless I can get a tree or something in it. They look pretty to people who are familiar with the lights, but to anyone else, it's just a splodge of color.
The contrast between nature and man-made. I.E. The aurora in a nice scene with say a man-made object or two.

Man-made objects that work well are, cities from a distance, older man made objects like prairie windmills, transmitter towers, anything that would be striking normally works well, but the picture should be mainly made up of natural objects.

Be careful with illuminated man made objects. On a 30 second exposure these objects may appear over exposed.

Keep a watch out for moving objects. A plane can spoil or make a picture. Satellites will produce lines (mainly near dusk and dawn). Vehicles, the same.

Watch out for car and street lights, even from behind you catching the side of the lens of your camera and producing lens flare.

Light Pollution

You want to be as far from light pollution as you can. The problem is auroral green can be mixed up with light pollution. Auroral green tends to be more of a teal green, and when you get good, you'll easily be able to see if there's an aurora happening even in the city.

Try to take your pictures in a dark location. Get out of the city, try to pick a location which has no major cities to the North, because that's the direction that you will see most auroras.

Alerting

Knowing in advance of a display is always better. The ADEC Aurora Alerting System is free and will email/page you on your computer or mobile phone/pager.