Aurora borealis over Wisconsin, near Balltown, Upper Mississippi Valley, Iowa, @11:25PM
According to many posts in social media, tt wasn’t the big show of the aurora borealis like as the day before, but at least we were able to get out Wednesday night and see the Northern Lights. The view goes across the Mississippi Valley over to Wisconsin. Although the area isn’t densely populated but every farm up to the horizon had their lights on and due to low humidity we had a really clear view into the sky and across the country.
I had the white balance in camera set to 3200 Kelvin. With the lens wide open (f/4) I found that exposure times between 3-6 seconds worked well. The light on the grass in the foreground was welcome and came from a car that drove by. I think it gives the photo a little more depth, even if it is just a hint of light. The most difficult part is obtaining a sharp focus in the dark. Autofocus is of course not working and with manual focus I did a number of test shots until I found the sweet spot with the stars at the infinity point.
Noise reduction for such an image is a must but I do not any noise reduction in camera. It was done in Topaz Photo AI and even some additional tweaks in Adobe Lightroom.
This photo session was a great learning experience for me and I can’t wait until I hear the next rumors about the possibility of seeing the Northern Lights from our area.
Nikon Z6 III, Nikon Nikkor 16-35 mm f/4, Nikon FTZ adapter, Induro GIT 404XL tripod, RRS BH-55 ball head, @ 16mm, 3s, f/4, ISO 10000,