Literally my back yard. At night, with some stuff going on in the sky. This is actually a frame from a timelapse but I’m still working on figuring out how to post videos.
Oh and just so you know, Aurora photography is REALLY hard. You’re like “I got this!” And the Aurora’s are like “Ha! I’m not gonna show up until the second you put your tripod away!”
Specific Feedback Requested
All feedback always welcome. Rip it apart. My specific weakness is composition. Just can’t wrap my head around it.
Technical Details
Taken May 2019 on a Nikon D5300 F2.8 4 sec 11 mm and iso 1600
Processed in ACR, played around with all the magical sliders until I thought it looked good.
Luckily, I would say the Aurora was working overtime to help you with composition! I think you could make a hundred photos of the Aurora and many, if not most, would be worth looking at. The danger, I think, is in over processing them, which you have not. Even in the little town I live in (8000 people) the night light is too bright to be able to see them so I have to drive a few miles out into the country—and yes all the while the aurora saying “I’m not going to show up until you leave!” Thanks for this.
This looks great to me! I doubt you had a lot of control over the composition, but however much you had, it’s a good job. The sliver of FG emphasizes the awesome sky.
There is a processing glitch along the left half of the bottom edge, where it’s too green. Possibly a mask for enhancing the sky that didn’t get erased there?
It’s a subject still on my bucket list, largely because I thinks the odds of success are so small.
Really awesome backyard! I would think you could have your camera set up all the time since you’re already home and don’t have to leave! Not sure how YOU would compose an Aurora, I think they do it for you and it looks like you just have flat land and no mountains so it seems like you can’t go wrong with the landscape! Nice capture!
That’s an awesome display, so wide-sweeping and the colors are lovely! Composition is good. The small sliver of land at the bottom gives a sense of the massive scale of the aurora. You can read a bit about composition but my advice is to get out and take as many shots as possible. Sure, you will take tens of thousands of crap ones but now and then, a “decent” thing will happen (or even a great one!) that will give you the momentum to continue. In other words: practice The only thing I would do in this image is to straighten the curved horizon due to the fisheye distortion. The wide-angle filter in Photoshop is great for this. There was a recent discussion on NPN about this, with a great video: Correcting Distortion and Leveling a Pano using Adaptive Wide Angle Filter in PS - Learning with Experts / Techniques & Methods - Nature Photographers Network
@Diane_Miller I think the green patch on the bottom is a grass meadow?
Not sure how YOU would compose an Aurora, I think they do it for you and it looks like you just have flat land and no mountains so it seems like you can’t go wrong with the landscape! Nice capture!
The only thing I would do in this image is to straighten the curved horizon due to the fisheye distortion. The wide-angle filter in Photoshop is great for this. There was a recent discussion on NPN about this, with a great video: