Critique Style Requested: Standard
The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.
Description
I’m sure you’ve all seen many images of the May10/11 aurora but here is my take. I’ve only photographed the aurora about a half dozen times - I’m not much of a night person - but this was the most intense and colourful aurora I’ve ever had the pleasure to witness. At times you could look in any direction, 360°, and see something happening in the sky. It was incredible!
Specific Feedback
I had a hard time getting the colours to look right. In the end I settled on this but I think I may need to go back and adjust the greens a bit. What do you think?
Technical Details
Canon 5DIV and a Rokinon 20mm lens at f/2.8.
Exposure: was 0.8 seconds at ISO 2500. Denoise applied in Lightroom. By the way, I was blown away by what this tool can do. It’s unreal!
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2 Likes
Gorgeous!! I’m so glad so many people got to see this! Your colors look fine to me, but I’ve never had the luck to see an aurora. The blues in the sky look good (there was some moonlight) so that seems to validate your WB. The ice/snow have a purplish cast but that could very well be from the aurora itself. My only suggestion would be to compare how the raw looks with daylight WB, but that may not be accurate. Go with what feels right – and to me, this does!
That same sunspot has rotated around the sun and has spewed another X-class flare. It will be aimed at us in a few days.
Thanks for the feedback @Diane_Miller! Originally there was quite a strong colour cast on the snow and ice and I had ended up processing the land differently than the sky. I lowered the saturation of the land and also cooled it down a bit. Although it was there in the RAW file, the magenta snow looked way too weird for me. 
I’ve got my fingers crossed that we get another show from that sun spot. That would be great!
Hi Tom! This is beautiful! The aurora colors look good to me, and I really like your choice of location. The aurora over the mountains and trees make for a great composition. I like your processing too, though I would have expected a little more magenta reflected on the snow.
Me too!
Thanks for your feedback @Steve_Kennedy ! When I was editing this, the snow was much more saturated and magenta but it felt too strong to me so I toned that down. Maybe I took it a bit too far?
I don’t know Tom. It’s all subjective and should be done to your vision. That was just my opinion based on the vibrance of the aurora colors and the normally reflective nature of snow. I think it looks great as is.
1 Like
The colors look good to me @Tom_Nevesely. I agree that a bit more magenta in the snow is not a bad thing, but it also depends on where you want our eyes to go.
For the most part, the greens look accurate to me. I have only seen the aurora in the Brooks Range (very northern latitudes, so not as much magenta), and I don’t know whether the greens are different there from lower latitudes. I circled the one place where they feel a little bright? I don’t remember the greens getting washed out in brightness to my naked eye, but perhaps that part of the frame got brightened or was a bit overexposed.
I also wonder about a slight crop up from the bottom. I think I went too far in this regard, but the melting snow along a low bank on the right is kind of less scenic than ideal and keeps grabbing my eye. I wonder if there is a way to either crop that out or make the snow look less patchy.
Fabulous image any way you look at it, and I love the crisp stars.
ML
Thank you for taking the time to comment and for your insights and suggestions @Marylynne_Diggs ! I truly appreciate it.
Wow! truly fortunate to witness these bright beautiful colors -moreover you have captured the definition so well. Stars are sharp.
I took the liberty to download and play a little with the crop and pop the R blue area a bit - just a slightly different take
