Once upon a time, under a cold and moonless sky, showers of green and red light danced all around us, illuminating our souls and bringing joy to our rapidly beating hearts. All sense of time and place seemed to disappear, as we watched the Auroras in awe, all alone in the clear and silent stillness of the Icelandic Countryside…
Spending the day on The Snaefellsnes Peninsula, I had a feeling that the weather conditions might be perfect for The Northern Lights, and by 9:30pm, we could see a strong green glow all around the horizon. After a quick drive in Truck Norris, we were in the perfect place.
The Auroras danced in the distance and began to peaked around 11pm when we found ourselves right in the center of the activity. No longer were we watching them on the horizon. Now the lights were falling right over our heads—swirling, spinning, and cascading all around us.
For nearly 3 hours we watched in awe as I photographed this magnificent and life changing event. When I was all finished it only felt like 15 minutes had passed. I will be forever humbled by the beauty of our amazing planet.
Technical Mumbo Jumbo
Camera: Nikon D800
Lens: 14-24 f/2.8 (Shot at 14 mm)
Tripod: RRS TVC-33 / BH-55 Ballhead / RRS L-Plate
ISO: 640
Exposure: 15 seconds at f/2.8
Technique and Details: Photographing the Aurora Borealis is nowhere near an exact science. Depending on their brightness, intensity, and the speed of their movement, a range of shutter speeds can be used to capture them. This range is usually somewhere between 10-30 seconds, and even though the Aurora puts off plenty of ambient light, be prepared to change your camera settings in total darkness.
Very little post-processing was done to this image and NO color was added. Everything you see was captured in the single RAW file. The Auroras cast a lot of natural light on the scene so I only needed to make some minor adjustments to the brightness and contrast. Using Photoshop, I also removed some of the green cast in the yellow grass. Some additional brightness, contrast, and saturation adjustments were used to balance the exposure in the sky. Lastly, I used the built in Noise Reduction in Lightroom 4.1 to mitigate the nasty effects of ISO 640.
Software: Lightroom, Photoshop, NIK Software
Espresso: Illy Medium Roast (I’m in Italy. I figured I’d spoil myself a bit. 
Why did you choose ISO 640 instead of something lower? Was there too much motion in the sky if you used a lower ISO and kept the shutter open longer?
Ciao Gavin, A lower ISO would have caused a longer shutter speed, while a higher ISO would have caused a faster shutter speed. Obviously, I would have liked to shoot with the lowest ISO possible but 640 was the best I could do with a 15second exposure.
That’s what i thought
thanks for the reply
Anytime.
I wish I get a chance to see the northern lights one day. Too bad they’re so unpredictable, you can’t really plan a trip to hunt them down and can only count on your luck when you’re somewhere up north. But maybe that’s what makes them so special.
Yea, that’s the thing with the Northern Lights. You can hunt them down, be prepared, and still not see they type you’re looking for. Luck seems to play a really big role in Aurora Photography since there are so many factors involved.
Wow, really beautiful – what a display you experienced! It is truly amazing when the Aurora is directly overhead. I’m glad to read this and learn a bit about how you captured these Aurorae on camera and the various things which affect how it comes out – it’s a complex thing to photograph at the best of times I think! Amazing photo
Lise, I think most of the complexity lies not in the settings, but in the positioning. The Auroras are totally unpredictable, and just when you think you have a good shot of them, they pop up in a completely different part of the sky.
Holy freakin’ cow! That is so amazingly beautiful. I can only imagine what it must have been like to be *in* it!! I have a feeling if I ever encountered something like that, I’d fall victim to Stendahl Syndrome. Familiar with that? If not, look it up. You’re prime candidate for it, considering the wonderful places you go and things you see.
Stendahl Syndrome, eh? I just looked it up. Wouldn’t that be something; to faint in museums and art galleries? I”m sure if that happened to me in the frozen Icelandic Countryside I’d have some big issues to worry about, like freezing to death.
Fantastic. Bravo!
ya man!! That’s what I’m talkin’ about!! What an experience that must have been!!
Yea, it was once in a lifetime for sure!