06/03/25 Aurora + mod

Image Critiques Landscape Critiques
1

Adjusted colors:

06-03-25 Aurora V2
06-03-25 Aurora V22000×1334 371 KB

Something that I learned from @David_Kingham is that you get much more subtle tonal adjustments by using the tone curves in LIghtroom rather than just temp and tint. This lets you adjust all 3 colors, should you need to. I went in and made tone curve adjustments to get the sky in the darker areas near the top more black and slightly desaturated. Particularly, with the black near the top, was it really black? Without something to use for color calibration of the camera, there’s no way to know.

Original:

06-03-25 Aurora.jpg
06-03-25 Aurora.jpg2000×1334 387 KB

Critique Style Requested: Standard

The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.

Description

I’m posting this in Landscape because the posts to Night/Astro have become few and far between.

Originally, the forecast called for heavy overcast with clouds decreasing through the night. Not a great forecast for Aurora photography. The “Amazing” aurora described in several newspapers for June 1 was largely a bust in North America, to the point that I read one article describing why the prediction failed…

Watching Aurora prediction (and monitoring) web sites showed a moderate intensity Aurora increasing slowly as June 2 became June 3 in North America. Given the cloud cover, I went to bed, but woke up about 1 AM (Mountain Standard Time) and looked out a North facing window. I could see hints of light on the horizon, under a fairly large cloud, but clear up high with the clouds moving east, so I waited and photographed. I was encouraged when a quick check on one Aurora web site showed the intensity continuing to slowly increase. I spent the next 2 hours photographing as the Aurora brightened and the clouds moved past. The view here is from 2 AM, which was near the peak intensity, with the intensity diminishing over the next hour.

Specific Feedback

The raw exposures where quite dark, but with significant lightening in both LR and PS, the views look good. The processing did significantly enhance the saturation, but given that I could as best see very faint greens and purples, I don’t have a way to calibrate the saturation. Given the rarity of the view in the continental USA, the drama may be appropriate.

Technical Details

R5, 25-105 @ 35, 6 s, f4, iso 6400, tripod and 2s timer. Heavy AI noise reduction in LR.

Critique Template

Use of the template is optional, but it can help spark ideas.

  • Vision and Purpose:
  • Conceptual:
  • Emotional Impact and Mood:
  • Composition:
  • Balance and Visual Weight:
  • Depth and Dimension:
  • Color:
  • Lighting:
  • Processing:
  • Technical:
2

Its a very nice image, and your dedication in getting it is impressive. Didn’t have much of a view around here, but it was pretty cloudy and we have wildfire smoke.

-Will

3

Hi Mark,
Glad someone got to see the aurora, because it was a bust in MD; at least where I live. I am not complaining though because I was fortunate enough to see them in October 2024. The colors and saturation look just fine to me. I am also enjoying all those stars spread out across the nighttime sky. Your perseverance paid off. I hope to see more.

4

Your dedication to getting this image is certainly worth mentioning. I live too far south to ever hope to experience something like this unless I travel to a destination just for this purpose so I’m a bit envious. I like that you included some foreground hills and lights of the city for reference. I also think the clouds enhance the sky and I am drawn to that orange glow underneath the cloud in the center of the frame. Looks oddly alien to me but very cool as well. Your stars are nice and sharp and while the colors I feel are over saturated, I think it works fine with this image and your concept of how rare this is in the continental US. No harm no foul.

5

I love this and I’m happy that you didn’t give up and went out to shoot this. The clouds in the lower part of the image really add another layer of interest to the image and to me, the processing looks pretty spot on.

6

Wonderful that you caught it – not many people did! I have no quibbles with the saturation as the dimness of what we see is just a limitation of our vision. This looks true to a camera capture, to me, and the specs suggest you were able to capture enough photons for a bold exposure. The best color accuracy will be obtained with daylight WB. The blues against magentas are lovely. The yellows feel a bit greenish but that could be due to a strong dose of airglow.

The clouds do add a lot of interest, echoing the dark hills, and the stars are very nice. Persistence paid off here!

7

I had hoped to get out for some night skies by this point this year, but unfortunately life has just been too full. I wasn’t able to chase the recent aurora for the same reason. Maybe others are battling the same issue?

This is lovely, and I enjoy the way the clouds add drama. I do find saturation choices tough with these, because as you note the camera is seeing the light completely different than the eye. I think this looks fine except for the darker areas at the top. I could see backing off those just a little.

I wouldn’t be afraid to clone out those light at the bottom, but that’s a personal preference.

8

I’m glad you went out into the night and managed to snag an image of the aurora. This is beautiful. I am partial to your re-worked image and I agree with John that cloning out the lights at the bottom would eliminate that minor distraction.