If you travel to Canada, Scandinavia or Russia this Winter (long nights!), you may be tempted to capture it on your camera sensor. But will you know how to make these pictures pop? It may be the only trip you’ll have the occasion to catch these Northern Lights. I doubt it and I tried to summon several experts and the articles they posted about photographing northern lights.

They are long (but you should read them from top to bottom anyway). So, I’ll try to give you a summary or key items to remember, before you read them to correct my approximations or bad interpretations.

• It’s easier with a camera fitted with a sensitive sensor (a Full-Frame sensor D-SLR would be great), a lens with a large aperture (f/2.8 or better, if possible) with a short focal length (14 to 50mm, to get a wide field of the sky).
• Don’t be afraid experimenting, or trying again and again with various camera settings.
• Start with ISO 1600, f/2.8 and 15 seconds shutter (tripod is compulsory).
• Check your tests with the histogram and shoot everything in RAW.
• Picture composition is important and framing something else than the sky may be critical (think reflections in a lake, framing a rock, a house or a tree).

And, stay as warm as possible (nights can be cold).

The blog posts I referenced:

• Secrets to Shooting the Northern Lights by Grant Collier
• Northern Lights chasing in Iceland with the Nikon D810 by Jonathan Zdziarski (You can appreciate it, even without a Nikon DSLR)
• How To Photograph The Northern Lights by Chris Brinlee Jr

Wikipedia photo.

But cold is rather an ennemy for our photo gear (and for photographers). So, here are a few of the tips and tricks I collected from photographers really used to this situation and who accepted to share them with me (and you).

Gear

Normal operating temperature of most cameras is between 0°C and 35°C. Most of them would probably keep working under 0°C, but they would be more exposed to the risk of locking down. Pro cameras have a much wider range (their cost is also much larger) but even they need to be taken care of.

Acclimatization

Avoid going directly from a hot car to the low external temperature (or worse, bringing back to heat a camera which just spent fifteen minutes at -30°C) without a very smooth transition. Keep your gear in a bag during long minutes (usually half an hour is enough) in a bag which will slow down the transition as much as possible.
Some products are designed specifically for that purpose (to protect and to allow easy manipulation during those transition phases):

• Lenscoat BodyGuard Compact CB
• Protective neoprene pouches – Lens pouches

You want to avoid condensation as much as possible (short-circuits can easily damage the best electronics) or frost (which will glue mechanisms). Beware of flash lights which are more sensitive because of high voltages used inside their electronics.

When temperatures are really low or for ease of use, you can leave all your gear (except batteries) in the permanent cold. Just be sure to avoid humidity and, if you are in more “civilized” areas, to keep it out of sight.

If condensation happens, don’t wait: Remove the battery, remove the lens and let it all breathe and dry, avoiding humid places. Limit all mechanical handling (don’t play with this lens rings) and keep the batteries out until the last trace of humidity is gone for sure. With no electricity, there are very very few risks of permanent damage.

Rain or snow

From all that precedes, you have understood that you don’t want to expose your gear to rain or snow or sleet, when it’s cold. Anything protective will be good. Even a plastic bag attached with gaffer scotch tape will protect your camera and lens.

Battery

Now, go buy some more spare batteries. In cold weather, their autonomy drops down to ridiculous levels. You will need to switch them often. So, you need a stock.

But the best to keep them working is keep them warm: Inside your own clothes (not inthe external pockets, of course). Just draw it out when needed. Even if you need to do that quite often.

(and don’t forget to have enough chargers -or enough charging time- to bring three times more batteries than ususal; Keep charging).

Lenses

To avoid humidity, just avoid swithing lenses. All the more, if you are outside and it is snowing…

Photography

The photographer must stay warm

OK! Maybe not warm, but not too cold. And confortable enough not to shiver (this would blur the shots ). You will do nothing good if you are frozen. Start by getting advice from people from the region, follwo their advice. And start with:

• For Winter clothes, several layers are better than one.
• Since you may have to move from one temperature to another, you must be ready to adapt quickly (add or remove layers).
• Don’t go too far: Avoid sweating; It would only reduce the efficiency of the best technical clothes.

But remember two important factors:

• Most photographers move very little; Most sports-oriented recommendations must be adapted (less phyiscal exertion means less heat produced by the body).
• In case of wind, if you can’t find a proper shelter (e.g. when stalking an animal), the effects of cold are amplified quickly and you need added protection.

Gloves

Try and handle little buttons either with frozen fingers or with mittens… My recommendation:

• A first layer of silk mini-gloves (very thin, very confortable and quite isolating)
• On top of them, you’ll put the thickest gloves you can buy if you find them practical to handle the camera. Don’t be shy! Bring your camera to the clothes store. Or use the gloves to handle the buttons on the side of your smartphone. You’ll be a good judge of what is OK or not.
• Possibly, buy very thick gloves but cut the forefinger to allow the finger out. Not elegant, but efficient. And, there comes the advantage of a silk glove inside.

Silk gloves tend to tear down easily, but they cost near to nothing. So, find a bargain sale and buy several pairs.

Bag

More than ever, you want a bag that is easy to open and close (even with mittens) and easy to handle (even over thick clothes).

Plan ahead

You will have less opportunities to fail or miss. So, plan ahead. Prepare for all. Think about the photos you want to shoot and choose your gear for that. Choose your focal length. Choose sensitivity. Choose your clothes.

Before you leave.

Experiment

In Winter, most subjects are slower. It’s time to experiment. Change speed and aperture. change sensitivity. Change your frame.

Expose

Light can be tricky, so, if you think you can handle it, go RAW to have more correction possibilities for an imperfect exposure.

On snow, you may have to over-expose to keep a white surface despite the camera computer trying to make it look dull and grey. 1 stop. Sometimes 2. Check the histogram if your camera can display it. Or use exposure bracketing (e.g. 3 or 5 shots with 1/2 stop spaces).

Since it may be very difficult to correctly judge images on a small LCD, never delete an image in the field. This is better done in front of your computer screen.

Correct

Back on the computer, you will choose the best exposed shot (where there is no burnt white lights, no black shadows) and you may correct it slightly to your taste.

If your pictures appear quite dull, think about pushing the blacks a little. Sometimes a little added contrast may do wonders, but remember that Winter is made of low contrasts on white surfaces.

Watch

Look for your subject, but don’t forget your footsteps in the snow. Maybe, you need to plan where you’ll be walking? Again, plan ahead.

Remove snow

A few snow flakes may be photo-bombing your best shot. Remember that you always can use a slow speed and a tripod to hide a few of them.

And some personal pleasure!

Don’t forget a little comfort: Bring a vacuum bottle filled with a hot drink. There’s nothing better to improve poor morale when it’s cold or when the light does not want to be right.

photo credit: Dinh Huynh

So, let’s not forget the basic advice for the photographer in cold weather and we’ll bring good pictures back from the near-Arctic zone of our holidays.

1. Protection against mist and water vapor: Cold generates mist any time hardware moves quickly from one place to another one, violently changing temperature. In a house, it’s warm with a lot of humidity; Outside, it’s cold and the air is dry. Use a plastic bag for freezing food. You’ll close the camera and lenses with outside dry air before getting back in. Don’t forget to remove the battery and/or memory card on the doorstep, of course.
2. Protection against snow: As for rain, you must be wary of the bad consequences of humidity directly one the photo equipment. If the camera is weather-sealed, you’ll forget about it, mostly. But, if not, don’t let snow fall onto it. It’s so much nicer, but it will short-circuit electrical contacts in about the same time.
3. Electrical storage: Be prepared: You need more batteries. In the cold temperatures, all batteries seem to loose a lot of their autonomy. It is advisable to keep unused batteries near your body (for body heat), but above all double all your habits for additional energy storage. You need twice the spare batteries.
4. Protection of the photographer: Hardware is not the only one sensitive to cold. The software photographer also gets cold. Remember to always be clothed more than adequately. You will not shoot good pictures if your are frozen to immobility and get a cold. Remember that it’s always more difficult if you are not moving for a long time.
5. Protection of the photographer: More specifically, choose cautiously your gloves. They must be as warm as possible and as thin as possible (to keep a good finger sensitivity on the controls). You’ll find excellent technical products in shops specializing in outdoor and alpine sports.
6. Don’t forget the light: This is the most common problem with snow, you must over-expose by 2 stops when snow is visible in the viewfinder. The metering sensor and system will try to render some kind of medium light grey color, and with all this white snow, it will strongly under-expose. You must compensate and OVER-expose.

Snap nice frozen photos! And show us them on the Facebook page, or in the Flickr group.