Cree and I just returned from Haines, AK. We spent a week photographing eagles at the Chilkat Bald Eagle Preserve, and there were tons of eagles this year (more on that soon). On the way home we drove through interior Alaska and Yukon with clear skies and good aurora forecasts. But we also had an almost full moon…can you shoot the northern lights under a bright moon? The answer is yes, and it is one of my favorite times to photograph the aurora.
The biggest difference shooting at 8-15 seconds under a bright moon is the amazing detail you get in the surrounding environment. Foreground landscapes have lots of details, and snowy scenes are just magical. Your white balance will be different in snowy moonlit scenes with aurora. I normally set a custom white balance around 4000K for northern lights, but with bright moonlit scenes I move this closer to 4800K since the scene is closer to ‘daylight’. Of course you can always adjust white balance later, just make sure you are shooting RAW files. Another nice thing is you don’t need a headlamp. I was out for hours the other night photographing aurora under a mostly full moon and I never got out my headlamp once. My exposure for the image at top was 8 seconds, F2.8 at ISO 1600. I was using my Z9 (love those illuminated buttons!) and the 14-24mm F2.8 Z lens.
Bright moons require bright aurora displays. If you have a subtle aurora display the moonlight may wash it out some. Your exposure has to blend the bright moonlit landscape with the northern lights. If you shoot a really long exposure to capture a weak aurora display, your moonlit landscape will be overexposed. But the silver lining is you can use lower ISOs with more light, so less noise in the final image. And shorter exposure times will render more detail in aurora shapes.
If you are shooting coronas straight overhead with no foreground, then you don’t want any moonlight at all. But I prefer foregrounds with aurora. Moonlight nights create dreamy Jack London winter scenes under the dancing northern lights.