Hunting for Northern Light photography 

The Northern Lights are stunning in the nature and in photos. Äkäslompolo and Ylläs have been said to be very good places to see and photograph the Northern Lights.

I saw an announcement from local Kuukkeli news that an English-language photograph lesson will be held at Kellokas Center. I decided to take part in it. I have had System camera (SLR) for few years and I have taken photos without reading the instructions. Taking photos in the dark, e.g. the Northern Lights, requires a deeper understanding of how to adjust the camera. So, this lesson came with a need for me. 

The evening before the Northern Lights lesson was cold and we went for a walk towards Muonio. I was wondering, if it could be the evening for the Northern Lights. My camera was in the backpack, just in case. After the walking, we went to eat and then to the shop. When we were walking near Lake Äkäslompolo, there were some dim green lights in the sky. The o'clock was about 6 pm and I supposed that we have plenty of time for the brighter Northern Lights. At 7 pm we were at home I looked from the bedroom window at the direction of the lake Äkäslompolo, could "sky lights" be on? But I didn't see. on the next day I heard that there had been magnificent Northern Lights just between 6 and 7 pm. Unfortunately, I missed them. Even if I had seen them, I couldn't have taken photos. 

The next evening a group of people interested in Northern Light photography gathered to the Kellokas Center. The guide Markus Kiili had a lot of interesting things to tell and teach. In the first place, it is useful to be in the place where the Northern Lights are visible. To help to find the Place, Northern Lights Alert application (phone apps) is very useful, because it will alert you when the Northern Lights are coming, about ½ - 1 hour in advance. One a suitable app could be e.g. Soft Serve News. I had downloaded such application to my mobile phone earlier, but due to lack of phone space I had removed it. Now I need to download it again. 

Even though the apps tell us that where are the Northern Lights, clear and cloudless weather is also a required. The evening before was just right one. 

Aperture -> When there is bigger aperture, then more light is obtained. The maximum aperture is not the best and if the aperture is too small, the stars may be as like snowballs. Settings from 1.4 to 4.5 or 3.5 to 4.5 are good ones.

Exposure Time/Shutter speed -> When there is more exposure time, then more light is available. Short exposure time can be used for fast movements photos. Speed settings of 2 - 25 sec are good ones. The best settings are between 4-8. For the brighter Northern Lights should use the lower settings and for the dimmer should use higher settings.

ISO Sensitivity -> When there is higher sensitivity, then brighter photos are available. Settings should be a minimum of 800 and a maximum of 6400. Lower sensitivity, on the other hand, reduces noise (small dots), so you should to test sensitivity from lower to higher. 

Please, note that settings may very dependind on the weather. The camera's auto settings are useful only for a daytime, but in dark you need to update all the settings manually. 

Focusing -> It is best to adjust focus to light 10-20 meters away, such as moon, streetlamp, mobile phone or headlight and then turn on manual focus on.

Tripod -> This is really needed, only very few people a steady hand enough that thye can take photos without the tripod. In some cases, if the tripod is not available, the camera could be put on a backpack or on other flat place. 

Landscape Photography -> It's good to photograph some other things to photo too, such as land, clouds, water or trees. Snowy trees give a beautiful touch to Northern Lights photos.

Coldness -> In a cold weather, the camera battery runs out very quickly, so you should keep extra batteries with you. Batteries can be heated inside thick gloves. Cold weather also affects to the camera and humidity will come into the camera when you bring the camera in the warm. It's good to leave the camera in the bag and allow let it to stay there.

Photography in cold itself requires time, patience, warm clothing, testing of settings and good luck. Few times when I have taken photos in a cold weather, the freezing of the fingers during settings has brought its own challenges.

When you transfer photos from the camera to a computer, photos can be further processed by an image editing program, such as the Light Room. Personally, I mainly use cropping and exposure correction for image processing, and I prefer more natural colors in photos. But until this day I haven't take Northern Lights photos. 

The best time to take the Northern Lights photos are from September to October. This was a surprising information for me, because I had thought that the winter is the best time. The best place in Äkäslompolo is the lake, which is very close to the center of the village and easy to get there. The Northern Lights are the most in the East-West direction, so it is good find photographing place for these directions. Markus told that In Äkäslompolo, you can try the ISO sensitivity setting of 3200, too, which is half the maximum setting.

The lesson material presented by Markus Kiili can be found from this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSWi_FjCOI4 

I asked from Markus Kiili for permission to use his links and material and he said OK. When watching these video and photos, you find that Markus is very talented at taking photos and making videos! One day when I'll take a successfully Northern Lights photo by myself, I will surely show it for everyone 😊😊😊