Hey /p/
Managed to witness and capture the Aurora Borealis on Christmas morning. I'm a very amateur photographer and did my best to capture the lights but they were very faint and the light pollution was pretty crippling (I was in the middle of Reykjavik). How can I enhance the photos I did capture?
TL;DR How do I improve these pictures of the Northern Lights?
Retaking the pictures on another date isn't an option.
Cheers!
OP here. This is a heavily compressed version of the photo I captured...
shameless self bump
>>2729721
Get out from the fucking city
Get a much faster lens
Get a camera that can crank the ISO more
Shoot RAWdawg so you can fix it in post
I've never seen the AB myself so idk how fast it "moves" around. If it doesnt move very fast take longer exposures
This stuff should be obvious to you anon, are you just starting photography?
>>2729829
As I said, very amateur. Only just pushing past the basics in my free time. Your first three suggestions, however, were obvious to me but not viable at the time. The picture shown is a 3 minute exposure. RAW is something I've not yet looked into but will do in the future.
My post was more aimed towards 'What can I do to polish and improve the picture I already have?'.
The Lights when I saw them were very slow moving; essentially static as the geomagnetic activity was very low. Imagine clouds on a still day. To the eye they were even less visible than in the picture posted.
>>2729836
Ah sorry I totally fucked up reading your post
Well sorry to say but there is virtually nothing you can do to improve that photo. Whatever you do is sure to overcook it and it isn't a very good capture anyway. What Camera are you using? Looks like a shitty p&s to bee honest familia.
The best thing you can do is plan to go into the countryside and try again. You live in beautiful Iceland ffs. Get a wide lens and try to incorporate beautiful mountains or volcanos into your shots,
The AB, just like getting pictures of the milky way can only really look good when you stack like 30 photos onto each other in photoshop. Sorry I cant tell you how to do it because I've never used photoshop or tried to take a picture of the milky way yet, but I'd like to try soon
It's cool man. I feared that may be the case. Even so, still very happy to have witnessed and captured (albeit shittily) the Aurora.
I don't live in Iceland bro, just here for a week, hence all the limitations on getting out of the city/returning with better gear etc.
Also something I'd like to try but it appears I have much more to learn than I anticipated! Oh well, if it came easy it wouldn't be rewarding!
Cameras wise I had two 1100d exposing, one with the factory 18-fifty five (my 'five' key is broken, hence typing 'fifty five')
>18-fifty five, don't hate me
...and one with a cheap 70-300.
>>2729846
>>2729846
wew lad yes it's time for an upgrade.
With those lenses you had no chance getting enough light in to make this a feasible attempt. Since you also shot jpeg, you have only a fraction of editing latitude to edit your picture with. This is the importance of RAW. You gotta stop shooting jpeg.
Also with a 3 min exposure Im sure the AB moved enough in that time to ruin your chance at getting a crisp image of it.
Better luck next time. Start saving your money for a new system when you've learned and accomplished all you can with your current one.
very very nice! :D
>>2729721
Not much can be done. You could probably bring out the aurora a bit by making the greens more saturated. Otherwise location, location, location. I was in Iceland a few years back. You can book a night aurora tour for like 40$ and they'll drive you out to a remote mountain. And if nothing shows, you get to go again the next night for free. Check Viator.com
