Skip to content

Aurora Camera Settings Cheat Sheet (Printable)

CHEAT SHEET
Aurora camera settings, on one card.

A field-ready starting point for shooting the northern lights — exposure by brightness, the rules that matter, and the things you forget at −20°C. Save it to your phone or print it for the glovebox.

Download PDF
Exposure — start here

The brighter and faster the aurora, the shorter the shutter and the lower the ISO — freeze the structure, don't smear it.

Faint
barely-there grey arc
ISO
3200
APERTURE
f/2.8
SHUTTER
15–25s
Moderate
a clear green band
ISO
1600
APERTURE
f/2.8
SHUTTER
8–15s
Active
bright, moving bands
ISO
800–1600
APERTURE
f/2.0–2.8
SHUTTER
4–8s
Intense
overhead corona, fast
ISO
400–800
APERTURE
f/1.8–2.8
SHUTTER
1–4s
The four rules
Focus
Manual. Live-view 10× on the brightest star, turn the ring until it's a hard pinpoint, then tape it down. Never trust the ∞ mark.
White balance
Manual, 3500–4000 K. Keeps the greens green and the pinks honest — auto WB drifts frame to frame.
The 500 rule
Longest shutter before stars trail ≈ 500 ÷ (focal length × crop). 14 mm full-frame ≈ 35s, 24 mm ≈ 21s. Go shorter when it's active.
Format & glass
Always RAW. Widest aperture, widest lens (14–24 mm full-frame). A sturdy tripod with the centre column down.
Don't forget, in the field
Turn OFF stabilisation on a tripodSpare batteries in an inner pocket — cold kills them2-second timer or a remote releaseA microfibre cloth for lens frostA red head-torch to keep night vision
These are starting points, not laws — read the sky and adjust. Want it interactive? The exposure calculator does the maths for your exact gear.