jessicagilbert
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Behind The Lens
Location
This photo was taken on a lonely rural road near Tromsø, Norway. My family and I were living abroad, in England, and took advantage of the travel opportunities every chance we could. Of all the places we visited, Norway was one of our favorites. The landscape was stunning in every direction, including the sky above.Time
We planned our trip to Tromsø during the winter solstice, when we knew we'd have the best chance to see the northern lights. Daylight only lasted about three hours, but the best time to see the aurora borealis is late in the evening. That's when our Norwegian outdoor photo adventures began. This image was shot at around 10:30 PM.Lighting
My favorite thing about this image is that it tells the story of a beautiful journey. The road is dark and uncertain at first, but the lights and stars dancing across the sky whisper "the adventure will be worth it." The northern lights were just wisps of light on the horizon, allowing the stars to be revealed just above them.Equipment
I shot this long exposure image with my old Nikon D5100 crop sensor camera and a 18-300mm f/3.5-5.6 lens, using a tripod.Inspiration
I've always been fascinated with northern lights images, so when I finally had my opportunity to make my own northern lights images I jumped into action. Our trip to Norway happened to coincide with a solar storm, the flares from which gave us quite a stunning light show. On the night I shot this image my camera was pointed in the complete opposite direction. But when I turned around and saw how the faint whips of green light stretched over the horizon towards the cosmos, I knew it would make an interesting image. It turned out to be my favorite.Editing
I did have to do some minor post processing. I bumped up the exposure just a hint, then brought the shadows up on the road and terrain to bring out more detail. I didn't have to make any adjustments to the sky.In my camera bag
These days, my camera bag includes a Nikon D750, a Nikor 14-24mm f/2.8 wide angle lens, a Nikor 24-70mm f/2.8 lens, and a Nikor 70-200mm f/2.8 lens. I also carry a Nikon SB-700 flash and a ten stop neutral density filter. My "go-to" lens is definitely the 70-200. I love the bokeh and lens compression I get from it.Feedback
Night photography can be challenging, and it's something I'm still working on perfecting. I have learned, through a great deal of trial and error (and reading advice from the pros after the fact) that exposure time is really important. Expose too long and you'll have tons of noise, light pollution, or smudgy stars that were meant to be points. To get the stars to look like pinpoint, limit exposure time to 20-30 seconds. This often means bumping up your ISO and opening up your aperture. To get great detail in the foreground an in the sky, you may need to take two separate images, exposing for the foreground in one and the sky in the other, then compositing the two in Photoshop.