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Author Topic: aurora panorama  (Read 10268 times)

jdemott

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aurora panorama
« on: September 05, 2005, 12:29:58 am »

Wow!  I'd love to see it full size.  Where was it taken?
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John DeMott

macgyver

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aurora panorama
« Reply #1 on: September 05, 2005, 01:06:56 pm »

santa, that's amazing.  christmas in august...
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Mark D Segal

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« Reply #2 on: September 05, 2005, 06:00:15 pm »

Bud/santa, those panos are surreal and very beautiful. I am particularly interested in your approach to making these panoramas. Grateful if you could explain a bit the techniques behind the panning itself and the post-processing.

Thanks and regards,

Mark
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Mark D Segal (formerly MarkDS)
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santa

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« Reply #3 on: September 05, 2005, 08:18:43 pm »

the basic exposure information was in the first post. I am pretty sure I had the camera set for manual color balance set for 4200K.  As I mentioned, they are hand stitched in PS by masking layers. There was NO post processing at all. I don't use a pano head or anything. I just shoot, swing the camera about 1/3 across the field of vision and shoot again. The RAW file is opened in Photoshop and I clicked on OK with no change to exposure, contrast or other parameters. The default PS parameters were used. I was reasonably confident 4200 would give me a decent white balance and had the exposure dialed in from earlier chimping during the evening. I am not always so "on the money" and don't hesitate to adjust the RAW parameters such as contrast, saturation etc when I need to, but I didn't do any of that for this shot. I do use a levelling base on my tripod and a bubble leveler on my camera to aid in proper horizontal movement. If you have any specific questions I'm happy to try to answer them.
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santa

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« Reply #4 on: September 05, 2005, 12:00:54 am »

For  your enjoyment. Shot with a Canon MKII, 16mm f2.8, 30 sec per exposure, 5 exposures hand stitched in Photoshop.

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santa

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« Reply #5 on: September 05, 2005, 12:38:45 am »

full sized would be quite intresting. 300 megs (due to layers). 225,000 pixels .  It was taken just SE of my home in North Pole, Alaska which is just outside Fairbanks Alaska. It was quite the evening. There are a few more shots from that night at http://www.pbase.com/santa/sept_1-2_2005  . Here is one more from that night. This is a 4 shot pano, again with no tweaking in Photoshop other than the actual stitching.

blue aurora
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Peter McLennan

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« Reply #6 on: September 05, 2005, 04:36:13 pm »

Incredible.  Best aurora shot I've seen.
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macgyver

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« Reply #7 on: September 05, 2005, 08:12:17 pm »

This may not be a good question, we don't have a large amount of auroras in texas, but it seems to me that the 30 second expose lenght would hamper the overall stitching.  I don't know how quickly auroras change is shape/size/etc but I'm curious.

-macgyver
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santa

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« Reply #8 on: September 05, 2005, 08:19:07 pm »

yes, 30 seconds can hamper things. If the Lights are moving rapidly and stretch far across the sky it is not unusual for me to find my last shot completely out of whack with the first shot and the pano cannot then be made. Other times the aurora moves slowly enough or is diffused enough that they blend well. Sharp, rapdily moving aurora that stretch across the sky become impossible to get a full panorama of, so each good pano I get is a real hoot. I have hundreds and thousands of exposures that have not worked into full panoramas. My March 7 gallery at http://www.pbase.com/santa/aurora   was my best night ever. This Sept 1-2 set was right in there...
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Scott McGee

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« Reply #9 on: October 05, 2005, 06:14:30 am »

Ok, usually I'm just a lurker here on the forums, but I just had to pass on a couple of my northern lights panos. The first one, with the band over the city lights, (6 frames) was taken from an overlook in the mountains above Anchorage, Alaska.

The second pano (3 frames) is a photo that will be nearly impossible to duplicate. I took it on the Juneau Icefield about 70 miles north of Juneau, Alaska (I had to ski to this place from Juneau!). The view is due north, with the setting sun in the northwest, the Moon rising over the mountains in the north, and the northern lights over it all. I'll probably never see this combination of celestial events again. Enjoy!
  
  

Canon 10D, f/2.8, 7 seconds at ISO 800
  
  

Canon 10D, f/2.8, 3 seconds at ISO 800
  
  
Scott McGee
(you can see more aurora shots at http://www.alaskaphotos.biz )
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BryanHansel

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« Reply #10 on: October 06, 2005, 01:34:02 am »

I want to thank santa for inspiring me to go out and do some northern light panos.  And Scott... Wow!  Great shots.

In mine, the moon is rising in the first.  The second is from 9/11.  It was slightly hazy, and the display in MN wasn't as nice as the AK display by the looks of it, but it was directly overhead and all around in every direction at times.  Very cool.


Nikon D70, 24 2.8, @2.8, 30 seconds at ISO 800, 3 images


Nikon D70, 24 2.8, @2.8, 10 seconds at ISO 800, 5 images
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Bryan Hansel
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jule

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« Reply #11 on: October 06, 2005, 02:15:20 am »

Thank you Santa, Scott and Bryan. Being from the Southern Hemisphere and not having travelled to that region, I am just awe struck !!!!!! I don't know anything about this phenomenon so you have inspired me to do some research.....and some investigation into airfares  

Julie
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Lisa Nikodym

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« Reply #12 on: October 06, 2005, 11:24:04 am »

Quote
Thank you Santa, Scott and Bryan. Being from the Southern Hemisphere and not having travelled to that region, I am just awe struck !!!!!! I don't know anything about this phenomenon so you have inspired me to do some research.....and some investigation into airfares

Before investigating airfares too seriously, Julie, be warned that the northern lights are a fickle thing.  A travel writer whose book I read (I think it was Bill Bryson?) once spent a month in northern Norway in the winter (when it was dark virtually all the time) and only saw them once near the very end of his stay.  I don't know if they're more common in Alaska, but you may need to stay quite awhile to not miss them entirely.

I've only had the opportunity to see them once, and only through an airliner window.  Amazing.  I hope to see them under better conditions sometime.

Lisa
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JJP

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« Reply #13 on: November 12, 2005, 04:01:38 pm »

Santa, Scott,
Thanks for posting your images.  They're fantastic, the best I've ever seen of the Aurora B.  Simply Beautiful
jules
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JJ

JJP

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« Reply #14 on: November 12, 2005, 04:12:05 pm »

Bryan,
I'd like to see your aurora images, don't know why but those little boxes just above each of your image have a red "X"  and won't allow me to see images.
jules
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JJ

katemann

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aurora panorama
« Reply #15 on: November 12, 2005, 10:10:24 pm »

Quote
Bryan,
I'd like to see your aurora images, don't know why but those little boxes just above each of your image have a red "X"  and won't allow me to see images.
jules
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=51120\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]


If you are on a Windows platform, try right-clicking on the red x and then choosing "show picture" or something like that.
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Goldilocks

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« Reply #16 on: December 07, 2005, 11:10:19 pm »

Those alaska aurora shots are amazing. Never really wanted to physically visit the cold frontier, but I'm sure glad you took me their through your various images and links.
Beats all the penguin pictures from the south pole. And it makes a sunset look just like a red ball.
"Its people like you that makes this world a happy place"
   
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