Green Visions

For the past three weeks I have had the pleasure of leading a photo

trip to the far north high in the mountains of the Yukon. Along on

this mini-expedition to one of the continent's most impressive ranges

were two photographer friends of mine, James and Colin.

We had a tremendous time out there, with the best shows of northern

lights coming the first four nights of the trip and one more a little

later on. Weather was not terribly cold yet and we were very lucky to

have found open water along some of the lakes mixed with interesting

shapes in the ice.

All of our photography was focused on complicated renditions that

showed off this amazing landscape as much as it did the Aurora. I

personally have seven or eight Aurora shots from which I cannot pick a

favorite. This was one of them. Please read below:

Processing: This is a blend of more than 10 images aimed at solving a

variety of technical problems and getting the view I wanted. First I

took the landscape AND aurora you see here with THREE horizontal 14mm

stacked and stiched vertically, for a nearly 180-degree field of view

(that peak was way too close, and absolutely enormous). I took the

mid-ground and aurora sky one after another at 10 seconds, as I

couldn't afford loosing the faint reflections in the water. I then

proceeded to work the foreground ice, which was picking up a diffused

green glow from all around. I would have obviously preferred one

exposure here but that wasn't even close to within the technical

capacity of the camera. Instead, I used about 10 consecutive bracketed

shots for DOF throughout, all at f/5.6, ISO 1600, 45 seconds.....so it

took another 10 minutes to render the exposures needed for the

foreground. Fortunately, the aurora was going throughout all the

exposures so there weren't any major color or tonal variances

throughout my exposing for the foreground ice.

Once in PS, I blended all images for DOF first. After that, I stitched

the three 14mm images vertically, which overlapped about one third.

When this was complete, I dodge/burned here and there for the final

result.

All color everywhere in the image comes from RAW only, and it was all

GREEN! I thought about removing some green in the landscape itself but

it didn't look natural. I just have to consider the fact that

everything here (snow and ice) reflects light well, and the only light

source there was, was neon green! Therefore, I think the color

rendition is accurate enough.

I think the foreground is what really distinguishes this photograph.  I've seen plenty of wonderful auroras set behind mountains, but never (that I can recall) this this kind of incredible foreground.  The texture and curve of the ice has all the aesthetics one could want in that element.

Your efforts have not gone for nothing ,indeed it is a very yielding one .

It is not an ordinary looking aurora,very fine ,very beautiful,and that monotonous green shades ,I guess all the green shades are there,is marvelous to view and admire ,.

excellent presentation,wonderful reflection,and an amazing view.rated 7.

the best photo i've seen in the last few months, maybe years!

you eyed the perfect angle and perspective, but even so it was a huge challenge technically, and it came out perfect! artistically it is amazing too. my sincere congrats!

excellent, congrats

Great Work... Best Regards...

Marc you always find absolutely spectacular landscapes. Just great!

Not even minute degrees below seven! Thanks for tech specs.

wonderful shoot

Whoa, what an image! Absolutely stupendous! The hard work was well worth the result.

Just curious what gives such a texture to the ice. I'm sure the holes are not all made by tripod legs :-)

Excellent....the ice patterns and green overall tone make it easily above average photo, when thinking about Northern lights -photos we usually see here.

The most beautiful pictures of auroras I never been see!

The composition is ipnotic and the detail is perfect

Many many congrat x 100!!!

Wow - that's really impressive and it's great that you shared all the technical detail. It sounds like your processing's been sensitive to the natural beauty of the scene and I think that shows. A really powerful shot.

This goes really to soul,dreamlike green and ice with this shapes is so unusual and incredible,splendid work.

RC

Hi Marc,

A good dialogue is always appreciated .

Nice work. The color is as it should be.

Best Regards,  Mike

Masterpiece.

One of your best, Marc. As mentioned, the foreground ice has textures that are quite unique and provide an excellent backdrop for the rest of the scene. I'd be interested to know how you managed the focus bracketing of the lower part - did you check every shot for areas in- and out-of-focus and then focused deeper into the scene, trying to overlap the sharp areas ? I tried this with a telephoto lens, but at 14 mm, you already have quite a large DOF, so the differences in sharpness may have been rather small. Could you shed more light on this ? Best regards. Peter

Marc:  Absolutely outstanding. One of the great images of all time. It has the effect of being on another planet. I have spent a good deal of time in the Yukon and the location is strangely familiar, but I can't place it. Inspirational concept well executed.

This is phenomenal to say the least! What an incredible site here in this photograph, I can't imagine what it must have been like to witness this as you did. Thank you for sharing how you achieved such a wonderful photograph. Best Regards ~ Gary

Amazing shot, Marc! Probably the best shot of aurora I`ve ever seen.

Thanks for sharing it.

An incredible amount of work in this shot, but worth every second for this creative and original shot. You have seen the potential and shared it due to your skill and hard work at executing the final image. Congrats William

Yes,this is probably the best aurora shot I have ever seen on any website.Thanks for sharing.

My best regards.

Kallol

Really amazing capture: otherworldly to look at, and definitely the best I have ever seen of northern lights: this will become a classic ! Thanks so much for sharing. Best regards, Karin.

This is an outstanding image Marc! A tremendous amout of work went into this image, and the end product justifies the work. Love everything about this one! Superb work guy!

All the best,
Neil