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Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2025 shortlist

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Re: Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2025 shortlist

#11

Post by finnjohnsen2 »

Norwegian here. Not a young one. Ive seen my share of the northern lights and Ive also seen a lot of photos of it. The photos are attractive, but they are never like seen by the photographer with the naked eye.

I blame that dark/night photography is an impossible task. The tricks like long exposure, ISO boost and noise cleanup, saturation, hdr or whatever you throw at it, just wont be like your eyes. Photographers gets carried away in post and boost too much, and I understand why.

Northern lights - are awesome. I encourage you to see it if you havent. Go this winter! And take photos and you’ll know what I meen. The colors wont pop like these popular photos, but standing outside on a freezing winter night holding back your frost breath from blocking the view of the green lights moving like firely beams of across the sky. Hopefully you’re somewhere quiet with no light pollution. There is nothing like it - watching the reflections of the armor of the valkyrene as they march on valhal

Re: Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2025 shortlist

#13

Post by dylan604 »

finnjohnsen2 wrote: post #11

Norwegian here. Not a young one. Ive seen my share of the northern lights and Ive also seen a lot of photos of it. The photos are attractive, but they are never like seen by the photographer with the naked eye. I blame that dark/night photography is an impossible task. The tricks like long exposure, ISO boost and noise cleanup, saturation, hdr or whatever you throw at it, just wont be like your eyes. Photographers ge…

I'm all for managing people's expectations, but I'm just not agreeing with your conclusion. Human vision is only capable of registering such a small piece of the spectrum that is there. Just because human eyeballs cannot perceive the information does not mean it is not there. This is true of pretty much any astronomy photographs, and that is why people do it. When you look at the milky way, you don't see all of the colors with your naked eye. It doesn't mean they are not there though. Looking at Pleiades, you just see a group of stars, but long exposures reveal all of the incredible nebulosity around them. Looking at the Andromeda galaxy with the naked eye is meh at best, and only truly becomes awe inspiring with long exposure to start to reveal the detail in the spiral arms. Looking at any deep sky object even with a telescope with naked eye is just never going to allow us to see what is truly there.

Boosting colors/saturation that is already there is no different from what most people do with images on their phones. I also have no issues when people use a SII or H-alpha filters and give them a false color.

Re: Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2025 shortlist

#14

Post by JKCalhoun »

finnjohnsen2 wrote: post #11

Norwegian here. Not a young one. Ive seen my share of the northern lights and Ive also seen a lot of photos of it. The photos are attractive, but they are never like seen by the photographer with the naked eye. I blame that dark/night photography is an impossible task. The tricks like long exposure, ISO boost and noise cleanup, saturation, hdr or whatever you throw at it, just wont be like your eyes. Photographers ge…

I caught them when hitch-hiking from Alaska down to the lower-48 when I was 20 or so. I was also partly sleep deprived but the experience has haunted my dreams since.

Frequently after I would have dreams where wild displays of light (sometimes nebulae) covering the entire night sky, hanging over me — making me feel so small compared to the universe.

I've told my daughters to travel where they have to so that they see them at least once in their lifetime. And I mean the full on blazing in the night sky: crossfading, the colors....

I think I might rank them higher than seeing a full eclipse.

Re: Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2025 shortlist

#18

Post by jamestimmins »

dylan604 wrote: post #13
finnjohnsen2 wrote: post #11

Norwegian here. Not a young one. Ive seen my share of the northern lights and Ive also seen a lot of photos of it. The photos are attractive, but they are never like seen by the photographer with the naked eye. I blame that dark/night photography is an impossible task. The tricks like long exposure, ISO boost and noise cleanup, saturation, hdr or whatever you throw at it, just wont be like your eyes. Photographers ge…

I'm all for managing people's expectations, but I'm just not agreeing with your conclusion. Human vision is only capable of registering such a small piece of the spectrum that is there. Just because human eyeballs cannot perceive the information does not mean it is not there. This is true of pretty much any astronomy photographs, and that is why people do it. When you look at the milky way, you don't see all of the c…

I like this interpretation, because my experience seeing the northern lights was similar to OC's. I had such high expectations from photos, and then I saw them and was somewhat underwhelmed. My friends are photographers and they took vibrant photos, but since then it has felt 'fake' somehow.

But your framing it as what is actually going on, just with better sensors than our eyes have, makes me appreciate the art more.

Re: Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2025 shortlist

#19

Post by ethan_smith »

aredox wrote: post #2

I can't look at this without asking myself "how many of these are completely generated"? Thanks for destroying trust, AI researchers and companies. On top of everything else.

The competition requires submission of raw files and detailed processing information, making it one of the more rigorous contests for verifying authentic astrophotography.

Re: Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2025 shortlist

#20

Post by creativenolo »

hodgehog11 wrote: post #4

This is the kind of discovery that I love to see on HN. Regardless of who wins the competition, we all win by getting to see all of the entries. Absolutely gorgeous shots. Made my day.

It’s also lovely to see the exhibition IRL when it comes, if you’re lucky enough.

When I saw it, there were narratives about the people behind the shots which made it extra special.

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