The northern light blog: High ISO northern lights

The previous post showed the effects of increasing the ISO values to achieve shorter exposure times, but with a price on picture quality.

First of all, it is important to remember that most of the photographers have different opinions on what is "too much" noise, or saturation, or contrast. Photography is another form of art, and therefore, is subject to personal interpretations.

Some people have sent me messages asking for solutions: once the picture is taken, post-processing can help in fixing minor details. Another previous post went through the main enhancing process, to get the most out of each picture. But I have to ask... did you shoot in RAW?

There are usually two problems with high ISO northern lights: pale colors (with lack of contrast), and noise:

What to do with the colors?

If you are shooting with high ISO, it is always a good idea to overexpose the picture a little bit (make it a bit brighter than it should), so you will keep more details into the picture.
Once in the computer, increase the contrast (a little bit), and the color vibrance. This will give more vivid colors.

...And with noise?

Be careful with noise reduction tools: if you use an aggressive noise reduction setting, you will lose sharpness in your picture, and it will end up looking like a painting. It may be nice, but you need to be aware of that effect

There is a last option (Pointed out by the Solar Observer in Facebook), from a Photofocus guide about high ISO shooting: most of these advices work best in daytime situations, but have you ever seen a black and white northern light picture? Now you do!