My first Aurora photo I'd offer prints of...psyched!

jsecordphoto · Jun 27, 2015

what an absolutely amazing night....still can't believe I took this in central New Hampshire. I cropped this to 2x1 because I thought it looked nice as a pano, but it's really just 2 shots. 1 for the sky at ISO2500, f4, 15 seconds, and a foreground exposure at iso1600, f4, 3 minutes. This was a really tricky shot for me to process, especially around the white balance. With so much color in the night sky, it took me a while to get it looking what I thought was correct.

Now I just need to think of a clever title!

Derrel · Jun 27, 2015

Wow....who ever though the Northern Lights would be so,so visible across so much of the 48 states!!! I'm not normally one to even mention horizon lines but I'm guessing somebody will mention this one looks a bit downhill on the left. I think you struck a great balance between the aurora and the starry sky! Which is not surprising to me, since you have a good deal of experience with night sky shooting.

jsecordphoto · Jun 27, 2015

Derrel said:
Wow....who ever though the Northern Lights would be so,so visible across so much of the 48 states!!! I'm not normally one to even mention horizon lines but I'm guessing somebody will mention this one looks a bit downhill on the left. I think you struck a great balance between the aurora and the starry sky! Which is not surprising to me, since you have a good deal of experience with night sky shooting.

Thanks Derrel! Yeah it was such a crazy thing to see such visible Aurora here. I've had a few nights where they show up in long exposures, but barely visible to the naked eye, but nothing like this. I struggled a bit with the horizon line, and I think you may be right. The shoreline curved a bit, so even though it's technically level, it looks off to the eye and I think I'll adjust it a bit. The feedback is much appreciated!

Derrel · Jun 27, 2015

We had a rather long back-and-forth about the same issue a couple of years back--same basic scenario...I pointed out that in one image of a very large loch, that the "un-level" shoreline was actually accurately representing reality, as the right hand side of the water along the shoreline was only a few hundred yards distant, but the center and left hand side of the frame were the actual shorelines some three and then maybe five miles distant, looking down the length of a long, narrow loch...and that the ACTUAL shorelines were accurate...and yet...we had some people who insisted, very vociferously, that the "horizon is not level". I'm not one of those compulsive Photoshop horizon bubble-level types...I'm not OCD regarding horizon lines, but many people are. I guess on balance it's probably best to level the horizon so it looks level to the normal viewer.

Ever since Photoshop made it dead-easy to automatically level images, the OCD leveling brigade has grown in number.

jsecordphoto · Jun 27, 2015

Derrel said:
We had a rather long back-and-forth about the same issue a couple of years back--same basic scenario...I pointed out that in one image of a very large loch, that the "un-level" shoreline was actually accurately representing reality, as the right hand side of the water along the shoreline was only a few hundred yards distant, but the center and left hand side of the frame were the actual shorelines some three and then maybe five miles distant, looking down the length of a long, narrow loch...and that the ACTUAL shorelines were accurate...and yet...we had some people who insisted, very vociferously, that the "horizon is not level". I'm not one of those compulsive Photoshop horizon bubble-level types...I'm not OCD regarding horizon lines, but many people are. I guess on balance it's probably best to level the horizon so it looks level to the normal viewer.

Ever since Photoshop made it dead-easy to automatically level images, the OCD leveling brigade has grown in number.

Hah, I'll admit- I can be pretty OCD about a level horizon. I'd be lying if I said I didn't play around with different levels on this image, but after staring at it for so long I left it a bit off. Before putting it on my site I'll have to make a few final adjustments

BrickHouse · Jun 27, 2015

Awesome shot!

RDenhardt · Jun 27, 2015

Man this is just awesome! Im very jealous

Ysarex · Jun 27, 2015

Excellent photo.

Joe

They danced a cotillion in the sky;
They were rose and silver shod;
It was not good for the eyes of man --
'Twas a sight for the eyes of God.