Welcome to the North Pole

This Northern Lights photo has some technical problems that keep it from being an outstanding photo. The most obvious problem is the length of exposure. It was exposed at least 20 seconds too long. With a 30 second exposure of an active aurora, a lot of auroral detail is lost. Instead of capturing the auroral "curtains", the aurora becomes an indistinct blob of green. Stars also begin to show obvious "trailing" at a 30 second exposure- as is seen in this photo. Another problem with long exposures, esp. at ISO 1600, the camera turns night into day- as in this picture. (The white snow also reflects the light and compounds the problem.) The 5D can take terrific Aurora photos at an exposure of 5- 10 seconds, and will even do a good job at a much lower ISO.

The other suggestion for this picture- try cropping a bit of the foreground to eliminate some of the blur from the aperture you selected. It hurts the photo.

Despite these problems, this is still a beautiful shot- in a beautiful country.

Merrick

North Pole, Alaska.

Beautiful. This has alot of impact.

Trev

hey man, this is incredible photo! i?ve never been in iceland but if it is normal there, i must go there!:o)

wish you good light!

Wow, stunning shot. What a view. FS