Northern lights

[Steve Kaluski]

Guys any help or thoughts in processing this would be gratefully received as this is almost straight from camera.

Taken at abut 10.55pm at -24.6, so after 1.5 hours things were getting slightly chilly. The lights were not that strong and the only way to focus was to shine a torch at the trees and manually focus.

Steve
Subject: Northern lights
Location: Finland, approx 3 miles from the Russian border
Camera: Canon MKIV
Lens: 16-35f/2.8 - Swiss Arca ball head, Gitzo tripod
Exposure: 30s at f/5.6 ISO1000 manual compensation
Crop: FF

[Roman Kurywczak]

I am sooooooo jealous! I will take this into PS to see if I can pop the bands of color and let you know what I did. I do like the base of trees and nice to see the stars through the northern lights.

[Steve Kaluski]

Cheers Roman, though you might like to exercise some 'grey cells' on this one. Did try Vib/Sat, Fill in etc, but then you need masks etc, however anything you could suggest would be most welcome. Do you need a larger file etc?

cheers
Steve

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hey Steve,
I didn't try it without masks.....but here it is with a few. I desaturated the treeline greens.....then mostly left it alone. In the 2nd post I will show that I did a levels layer on that to boost the contrast......bringing white slider in and black as well as mid tone. I then toyed with selective color.....which may work without masks......play with the yellow, green, and perhaps magenta. Don't forget to toy around with the white, neutral, and black channel too! Will give that a go but will re-post this first.

[Roman Kurywczak]

Here is where I did the levels layer mask first

[Steve Kaluski]

Cheers Roman, nice to be on the, 'other side of the fence' this time.

Will give it a whirl, certainly it has more 'pop', guess I was being a little reserved, as the lights were more subtle, however pushing it will certainly not harm the overall look & feel. Appreciate the time.

cheers
Steve

[Arthur Morris]

NIK Color Efex Pro 4 Tonal Contrast at the defaults. To learn more about COlor Efex, click here.

[Andrew McLachlan]

Hi Steve, I have never shot the northern lights, but I do like what Arthur accomplished with Tonal Contrast the best. As for the comp, I like how you framed the scene with the tallest pine almost dead center, but not quite.

[Hilary Hann]

Nice one Steve, would love to see the Northern lights and the reposts are going in the right direction for anyone viewing the image. Whether they were as dominant as that in the flesh, only you can tell, but they certainly come up well.

[Brendan Dozier]

Very cool image, Steve, must have been wonderful to see in person! Reposts look good.

[Steve Kaluski]

Thanks everyone, Artie will check things out.

Ironically we had been checking the lights on the web, however the strongest showings were back in the UK. The lights were very subtle, but being in such a remote location there was no light pollution, so you could clearly see the bands changing, albeit subtle. For those that have seen it at full intensity this must be one of those moments we would all love to witness and perhaps, one of the wonders of the planet?

Thanks again guys.

Steve

[Morkel Erasmus]

A phenomenon I would love to see and photograph.
I like the simplicity of using the trees and the aurora. Both Roman's and Artie's reposts have their merits for me - while Roman's accentuates the beams Artie's accentuates a better general mood for me.

Why did you not shoot at f2.8? Would have made more stars visible and increased luminosity - with these kinds of lenses it's easy to get sharpness right through if you focus well enough in front of the lens...

[Steve Kaluski]

Why did you not shoot at f2.8?

Morkel, remember I am a 'New kid on the block' in this arena.

[Bob Miller]

Hi Steve....nice capture and color efex really helped bring out the color.

[Jerry van Dijk]

Well composed, both repost did a good job on enhancing pop and color.

[Robert Amoruso]

A phenomenon I would love to see and photograph.
I like the simplicity of using the trees and the aurora. Both Roman's and Artie's reposts have their merits for me - while Roman's accentuates the beams Artie's accentuates a better general mood for me.

Why did you not shoot at f2.8? Would have made more stars visible and increased luminosity - with these kinds of lenses it's easy to get sharpness right through if you focus well enough in front of the lens...

When Morkel beats me to a critique, he always says what I was thinking.

[Steve Kaluski]

When Morkel beats me to a critique, he always says what I was thinking.

Spooky!!!

[Morkel Erasmus]

Morkel, remember I am a 'New kid on the block' in this arena.

Apologies, Steve...you certainly are finding your feet quickly though

[Morkel Erasmus]

When Morkel beats me to a critique, he always says what I was thinking.

mmhmm...freaky!
well, you know what they say about great minds?

[Steve Kaluski]

Apologies, Steve...you certainly are finding your feet quickly though

It is down to good critiquing & advice here Morkel, 'nice image' simply doesn't cut the mustard.

BTW Anyone outside of the US cannot apply using Arties discount code on NIK software sadly :-((((((((((