Northern Lights

Hello everyone!

In this post, I will give you some advices on how to take good pictures of the Northern Lights!

Iceland is one of the best places in the world to see the northern lights. There are not many places on the planet from where you can see the northern lights, but Iceland is almost in the middle of the little Northern Lights oval, the unique geographical area with probability of seeing the northern lights! You never know for sure when the northern lights will make an appearance, but hunting them is a memorable experience. From the middle of November to the middle of January the lands north of the Arctic Circle experience the polar night, a period when the sun never rises above the horizon. This is the best time of the year to see the Northern Lights, and there are a lot of ways to see them. And during the day, while you are waiting for the northern lights, the island offers a lots of daytime adventure activities, for example: dog sledding, whale watching, snowshoeing, snowmobiling, etc. There is always plenty of wildlife close at hand: sea eagles and seals make their home a short drive from downtown. After all, Iceland is set in the centre of the Arctic’s most beautiful wilds. The island is surrounded by mountains, waterfalls, rivers, geyser, and beautiful fjords!

Take pictures of the Northern Lights is not so simple... indeed, it is a real challenge! And forget to use your smart-phone of the last generation, because the pictures would be very bad, even if you were the best photographer of the world! Personally, before leaving for Iceland, I downloaded an application to take night photos, whose name is "Night Camera”, which was quite useful, but anyway the pictures I took with my I-Phone 7, using this application, are not so good. I enclose them, so you can judge by yourself:

These pictures can be used just as "demonstration" that you have seen the Northern Lights, but they do not absolutely make the real idea of what Northern Lights are! All the pictures that you see on the internet are taken by excellent cameras, like Reflex, which are types of cameras that typically use a mirror and a prism system that allows to the photographer to look through the lens, seeing perfectly what is going to be captured. The system consists of a mirror tilted 45 ° upwards, placed behind the lens, and a pentaprism. When the photographer presses the shutter button on a mechanical camera, the mirror flips out of the light path, and allow light to pass through to a light receptor, capturing the image. Many of the advantages of this kind of cameras derive from viewing and focusing the image through the attached lens. Others cameras don’t have this function; the subject is seen through a viewfinder that is near the lens, making the photographer's view different from that of the lens. So, the Reflex are more precise. There is no parallax error and exact focus can be confirmed by the photographer’s eye. The depth of field may be seen by stopping down to the attached lens aperture. In addiction, because of the Reflex’s versatility, most manufacturers have a vast range of lenses and accessories available for them. The lenses of a Reflex offer a wider aperture range and larger maximum aperture than the lens of a normal camera. This allows to take pictures in conditions with lower light, even without flash, and also allows to have a narrower depth of field, which is very useful for blurring the background behind the subject, and making the subject more prominent. In addition, this kind of lenses is manufactured with extremely long focal lengths, allowing a photographer to be far from the subject and yet still expose a sharp, focused image. This is very useful!

First of all, I would like to say to you that, of course the Northern Lights won’t shine all the time, but that’s another reason Iceland is such a great place to seek them: there is a lot to see and do. I think that the winter scenery is really beautiful, with all the mountains full of snow. You could see whales swimming in the sea, you could also see free reindeer wandering in the nature and arctic foxes swimming in some lake. Iceland is an extraordinary destination for a beautiful and unforgettable holiday. The landscapes of fjords, valleys and mountains full of rivers and waterfalls are really epic and untouched! In the fews little villages, the homes made of wood and the particular fishing boats, in my opinion, blend very harmoniously with the beautiful and uncontaminated nature. It’s not so difficult to take good pictures of these scene but capturing successfully the Northern Lights is more than a challenge!

As I already told you, you simply would not get good results trying to use a smartphone or a tablet, even if it is very sophisticated so, take a proper camera and learn how to use it! Actually, I suggest to you to take your camera’s instruction book with you, because a lot of models have different settings that allow you to enhance night pictures. The camera you will take with you should have manual controls to adjust yourself the focus, the shutter speed, and the lens aperture. This type of camera are very expensive, but your results will be very good, especially if you would use a tripod, because the camera’s shutter needs to be open for a few seconds. Even though it may not be practical to take a tripod in your aircraft luggage, you could buy a little one with clamp-style legs on which to rest the camera.

If your camera has the capability, start with a speed of ten seconds, and if your picture looks too dark, increase it to twenty seconds, or even to thirty seconds. If your picture is still too dark, try to increase the ISO setting; and if the pictures are too light, try setting five seconds of exposure.

If your camera has interchangeable lenses, use the widest. The northern lights can spread over a huge area of sky, so a lens of 20 mm to 28mm (for a full-frame sensor) is a good option! Otherwise, set the lens to the widest zoom setting.

Always remember to switch off the autofocus, if it is possible and set your camera to infinity. It would be a good idea trying some test pictures in daylight to ensure the horizon in sharp focus.

Remember also that auroras may appear bright to your eyes, but their level of illumination is actually quite low! So, to have a best result, set the lens aperture to the fully open position, but not wider than f/2. 8. Then, set the ISO, starting with about 800, but knowing that you could increase it.

The shutter speed is another important thing that will help you to make better pictures. It works in conjunction with the lens aperture and the ISO setting.

Another thing that I want to suggest to you, is to always include something in the foreground of your aurora’s pictures, to give a good sense of perspective and scale!

Take a lot of pictures! Maybe you woud never see the northern lights again! You can then delete the failures!

Finally, take a spare battery and keep it in an hot inside pocket, because the cold temperature will drain its power very fast. It will also happen with your mobile-phone! I advise you to equip yourself with a portable charger, or, if you want to rent a car, to charge your mobile-phone every time you move.

If you go away from the cities, a lot of locations in Iceland will provide perfect scenery and a dark sky for your pictures.

The frosty pinnacles of the mountains and the beautiful conifer trees are a good foreground. You can also take a good picture of northern lights with the dim lights of a faraway town, but you have not to stay too close, because the artificial illumination can give you a lot of problems for your pictures.

If you are shooting the northern lights across a fjord or a lake, you would capture also their reflection in the water!

Now, I am going to write something about a special locations in Iceland, where you can take beautiful pictures of the northern lights! I hope this could help you in advance!

Jökulsárlón and the Diamond Beach

Jökulsárlón is located at the edge of the Vatnajökull National Park, around 400 km east of Reykjavik, on the southeastern part of the island. It is the Iceland's deepest lake and it is a very popular tourist stop. It is very beautiful! The lake keeps growing in size every year, due to the varying glacial melt each year. There is a lot to see here: a lot of wow factor and it’s a must on your trip to Iceland. You really have to go there! The Diamond beach is also very famous. It is stunning! It is located at the outlet of the lake to the sea.

They are located at 5 hours if you drive from Reykjavik along route 1, or 6 hours if you go directly from the Keflavik Airport. Doing a day trip from Reykjavik is a long drive both with a tour or own your own, it's not fun to spend so long driving, so my advise is to start/stop from a closer location. If you drive from Hofn, you will need almost one hour to get there, while if you drive from Vik, you will need almost two hours and half to arrive there. Once arrived, you will find 3 free car parks. The car parks are located on Highway 1 and are simple to find. There are a 2 north carparks west/east and 1 south car park for the diamond beach. You could just park in any of them because you need to walk around.

The larger carpark is to the north on the east side of the bridge may be better condition during the winter as it’s the largest of the 3. Pay attention when you're crossing the highway 1 road, between the lagoon and the sea, it's so easy to get knocked over if you're busy finding your best selfie angle.

The landscape, during the winter, is very beautiful as the outlet fills up with larger icebergs or ice chunks which eventually collide and then pass into the channel and out to sea. The southern car park lies directly to the side of the Diamond beach and you will see lots of ice lying which the sea has washed up. You could take spectacular pictures from here at the sunrise or at the sunset, especially with the clear ice particles. Jökulsárlón is by far one of the coldest places I experienced in Iceland, due to the whole area being open to the wind. But, if you are adventurous, I really recommend you to stay here waiting for the northern lights! What an amazing experience that is, especially if there is no moon and for some reason, human awareness changes during darkness and you start hearing ice move, you hear the funniest sounds, often manmade from a tour bus over the other side. Nighttime is extremely cold as I found out and there tends to be a lot of people so if you plan to photograph the northern lights against the Jökulsárlón then you may need to walk a little around the lagoon for a quiet spot. There is a 360-degree view of the sky here which means if the KP index is to the south you can still see the lights.

What a great place to take photos. Even if your using a point and click you can take some pretty amazing photographs of raw nature, just a minutes walk from the car. For those who want something different then I recommend a zoom lens. A 200-400mm lens will bring you close to the action and you will see some great close up photo ops. Diamond beach is probably the more fun area here because of you can experiment with the ice and photography and stands up/sit down/lie down or whatever trying to take the perfect ice picture. There is quite a few seals under the bridge area which you will often see and a lot of seagulls catching fish. By night for the northern lights, you will need a tripod and a pretty decent camera to capture some spectacular images. On the eastern car park there is a gentle incline if you walk north, its about 3-5 min walk and then you have height on your side and can take some wide angle stuff of the lagoon and the lights together.

Summer its warm enough for light clothes but bring waterproofs, all other seasons you will need to evaluate the snowfall/temp/wind but I recommend that you bring the full winter kit, make sure you have hat and gloves and my advice is to buy some of those hand warmers which you can keep in your pocket if your outside for long periods of times. Ice spikes for your shoes is a big advantage also. Just a word of warning, a lot of people like to walk, and that’s superb but in winter when the eastern side of the lagoon's still water turns to ice snow does fall on top and it can deceive the eye, especially in darkness. If you do go walking long distance make sure you tell someone before and take very warm clothing and a good torch.

If you are not travelling by your own car, there are a lot of daily tours from other main cities that you can enjoy. Many of those tours incorporate other adventures around the area, but you will need to google them as there are too many to choose from.

I’m sorry to say it, but going to Jökulsárlón would be a little bit difficult for weelchair and disabled, because the land is rough and there is little concrete or flat pathways. The good news is the east car park actually has parking space close to the outlet so you can see from the car quite well if you find a parking space.

There are basic toilets here, as far as I'm aware they are run by the tour companies and I'm unsure if they are free or you have to pay or open 24 hours. There is also a little bar, that close very early in the afternoon, with Wi-fi connection. But you need to buy something to have the password to use it and everything is very expensive!

Jökulsárlón is a very popular stop, a very popular day trip and probably one of the most written about tourists attractions in Iceland. Each day thousands and thousands of tourists come here! So, in order for things to be safe it is very important that everybody respect both the water and the ice and if you overnight there in a car, van or whatever else, please do not leave your car lights on all night, because it ruins the experience for others, and please also take your pee-pee and your poop with you. I have seen some nasty stuff, and that’s due to the lack of facilities. I did read that soon (if not already) portable toilets would be installed during peak tourism periods.

Personally, I did not wait for the night to come to Jökulsárlón, because it was too cold and I had nothing to do. It was already dark, but it was too early for the northern lights. If I had been alone, I would have waited, but since I was with my young son, after a couple of hours, we left Jökulsárlón. But it was good! Because we went in the direction of Hofn, and we found a thermal area open until late: Hoffel Hot Spot. We arrived around 22:00 and, while we were in the water, we witnessed a beautiful northern lights! It was a truly wonderful and unforgettable experience! Moreover, I was lucky enough to meet a couple of photographers, who immortalized that moment and then sent me some pictures, to remember it.

This was the third and last time my son and I saw the Northern Lights on our beautiful trip to Iceland. The first time was very random. We were in Geysir and it was already dark at 16:00, so we looked for an hotel and we stopped there. 4500 isk, or 36. 63 euros, for a bed in a dormitory, in which however there were only my son and I. Unfortunately, after a while the current was missing. We spent more than an hour in the dark, without heating, without being able to use wi-fi, and without being able to charge mobile phones. I went to ask in the reception what had happened and when the current would return, but they told me they did not know it and that if I wanted, I would have returned the money I had paid and I could have gone to another hotel. So they gave me back my money, and while I was driving to get to another place to sleep... I see a small green light in the sky. The Northern Lights!

It did not seem true to me! I stopped in the first parking that I found, in order to admire it. There were so many other cars waiting for them. Many tourists, mostly photographers, armed with very good cameras and trestles. I put myself close to them. I put my little son Pietro to sleep in a warm sleeping bag, well covered, and I enjoyed the show until 5:00 in the morning. That little green light turned into a huge beam of light that covered the whole sky. It danced, changed color. It was awesome! I have took a lot of pictures with my smart-phone, but they are not so good. Then I also asked photographers to make some of me and they did it, with the promise that they would send the pictures to me. And here they are, the same aurora looks absolutely different, and without filters and tweaks of any kind:

The photographer used a Nikon d750, with the following settings: 20 seconds of exposure, ISO 4000, f/2. 8.

Thanks to the blackout of the hotel, I saw the Northern Lights! If I stayed in the hotel, I would have gone to sleep and I would have lost it!

At 5:00 the show ended and I also went to sleep, in the car. I heated it well and I lay on the seat, all muffled, and closed my eyes thinking about my wonderful night!

Enjoy Iceland and enjoy Jökulsárlón! They are magnificent!

If you would like to find out more information about Iceland and see more pictures, you are welcomed to ask here, in the comments section!

Going on your own trip to Iceland? Plan to see the Northern Lights with this awesome and informative guide about when to see the Northern Lights.