Northern Lights

The other night the Northern Lights, aka Aurora Borealis, or in Icelandic, Norðurljós, were out in full force. I took my X100, and tripod outside of the city to photograph. I dialed in -2 exposure composition, put it on F4 or F2.8, and ISO 400, and let the camera determine exposure time. Most were around 20-30 seconds.

For post processing, Contrast is at 100% to darken the skies while bringing out the lights themselves. Being truly outside of the city to avoid light pollution would have helped with this. Also I had to further make an adjustment gradient for the ground, increase contrast further, and boost exposure, to get the reflections of the lights to pop.

The city glow in the distance of this one is Akranes. This is the lighthouse of Gróta.

The moon itself was really bright, and I liked how the silhouette of the dune grass with the moon directly above looked.

Aiming back into the city with a 4 second exposure:

I liked the sharpness of the dirt on the glass, with the glow and blur of the green leaves outside.