Photographing the northern lights in Kiruna

6 min read Updated October 2026 Compare all tours

Cameras see the aurora better than eyes do, because a long exposure collects colour that can look faint or grey to you. You do not need expensive gear to get there, but you do need a steady camera, the right focus and a plan for the cold. Around Kiruna the aurora season runs from late August to April, and the displays are often strongest between about 21:00 and 23:00.

A steady camera comes first

Every aurora photo is a long exposure, measured in seconds rather than fractions of a second. Holding the camera in your hands blurs the stars and the trees. Visit Luleå and the Royal Museums Greenwich each recommend a tripod. Choose one that you can set up with gloves on; the Greenwich photographer notes that tripods with fewer plastic parts cope better with the cold.

Pressing the shutter button can shake the camera at the start of the exposure. A cable release avoids that, and so does the self-timer on most cameras. Practise these steps at home, because fiddling with menus at minus 20 degrees costs time and warm fingers.

Camera settings to start with

There is no single correct setting, since the brightness of the aurora changes from minute to minute. The values below are starting points from the guides listed under sources, to be adjusted after the first test shot.

When the aurora moves fast or flares up, shorter exposures keep the shapes sharp. A faint, still band can take a longer one. Look at the screen after each shot and change one value at a time.

Focus in the dark

Autofocus searches for contrast and usually fails at night. Switch the lens to manual, turn the ring to the infinity mark and then back a little, as Visit Luleå recommends; many lenses focus slightly past infinity. Zoom in on a bright star on the screen and adjust until it is a small sharp point. If you find a good position in daylight, mark it on the lens with a strip of tape so you can find it again in the dark.

Shooting with a phone

Recent smartphones can record the aurora, too. Visit Luleå gives one basic tip: turn on night mode, otherwise the phone picks shutter times that are too short. Night mode then keeps the shutter open for several seconds, so put the phone on a small tripod or a steady surface such as a fence post or the roof of a car. Turn off the flash.

A phone screen at full brightness also ruins your night vision. The tourist office in Kiruna advises switching off lights and putting the phone away so your eyes can adjust to the dark. Turn the screen brightness down and look up between shots.

Batteries and cold hands

The tourist office warns that cold weather drains batteries faster than expected, and that applies to cameras and phones alike. Charge everything before the tour, carry a spare battery in an inside pocket close to your body and swap it in when the first one fades. A cold battery often recovers some charge once it is warm again. Hand warmers keep your fingers and the spare battery warm, and thin liner gloves under mittens let you work the buttons without exposing bare skin.

Coming back inside

The biggest risk to your camera comes at the end of the night. When a cold camera meets warm indoor air, moisture condenses inside and outside the body and the lens. Sony's manual explains the fix: before you go indoors, put the camera into a plastic bag and seal it tightly, then take it out after about an hour, once it has reached room temperature. If condensation has already formed, switch the camera off and wait about an hour before using it. Take the memory card out in the cold beforehand if you want to look at the pictures straight away.

Finding a dark spot

Light pollution flattens the sky and hides faint aurora. The aurora is sometimes visible in central Kiruna, but the tourist office recommends moving a little further away to a dark place without artificial light. Most aurora tours drive out of town for that reason, and the photo tour with equipment chooses its location each night after the weather. Abisko, 93 kilometres away by road, has very little light pollution and clear air, and at the Aurora Sky Station the night visits run from 20:30 until 01:00 at the latest.

Clouds lie below the aurora and block it entirely. Check a forecast before you go out, and accept that some nights produce no photos at all.

Giving the picture a foreground

A sky full of green looks better with something solid at the bottom of the frame: a spruce, a cabin, a frozen lake or a person. The Greenwich guide suggests lighting the foreground briefly with a torch during the exposure. A headlamp with a red light helps you set up without blinding the people around you.

Photo tours from Kiruna

A guided tour solves the two hardest parts: getting away from the lights and knowing where the clouds are. The photo tour by Scandinavian Sami Photoadventures lends a camera with a wide-angle lens and a tripod, includes warm outer clothing, a headlamp and a meal, and takes at most eight guests from age 10. Bring your own memory card. The smartphone workshop by Expedition Lapland adds a tripod, a fire-lighting challenge and a tasting board with reindeer and moose; it accepts guests from 12 and you shoot with your own phone.

If you would rather watch than operate a camera, choose a tour where the guide takes the photos. The campfire night by Lights of Vikings includes photos and videos by a photographer, and the bus tour by Kiruna Buss delivers digital photos but no raw files. More general aurora tours are compared on the northern lights page, and the polar night page explains the colours of the midwinter twilight.