Need help to sharpen part of a picture taken for Aurora Borealis

[Robert_1979]

Hi,

I am more an affinity beginner and am looking for some help on a picture. I was taking with an iPhone 12min a picture of the aurora borealis at night. It was difficult to have the focus on both landscape and Aurora while taking the picture. Is there a way to improve contrast /sharpness of part of the pictures (trees) without impacting overall picture?

 

Kind regards,

Robert

IMG_0129_original.HEIC

[firstdefence]

I doubt you would gain any benefit from trying to sharpen that image, the trees are almost like they have been posterised.

[Robert_1979]

2 hours ago, firstdefence said:

I doubt you would gain any benefit from trying to sharpen that image, the trees are almost like they have been posterised.

I appreciate your feedback it seemed the iPhone could only focus either on the trees or on the aurora, so that is why I was wondering if there could be any fix to make it nicer picture. If you have any advise for taking pictures for Aurora with iPhone 12 mini - I would as well highly appreciate.

[Murfee]

2 minutes ago, Robert_1979 said:

If you have any advise for taking pictures for Aurora with iPhone 12 mini - I would as well highly appreciate.

Get a small tripod for the phone, it will make a big difference. There is a lot of blur in your image that the tripod will help to prevent.

[PaulEC]

8 minutes ago, Robert_1979 said:

I appreciate your feedback it seemed the iPhone could only focus either on the trees or on the aurora, so that is why I was wondering if there could be any fix to make it nicer picture. If you have any advise for taking pictures for Aurora with iPhone 12 mini - I would as well highly appreciate.

Take several pictures, focusing on both/all items in the scene. Then you have more options for the finale image.

[Robert_1979]

Have a tripod and used for other pictures - here they did not gave us enough time to set it up so it was more quick shot, thus was looking if there was any chance to improve it. We will take as many with the tripod as we can.

[thomaso]

1 hour ago, Robert_1979 said:

any chance

Probably with a software specialised in removing blur, for instance https://www.topazlabs.com/sharpen-ai

[firstdefence]

6 hours ago, Robert_1979 said:

I appreciate your feedback it seemed the iPhone could only focus either on the trees or on the aurora, so that is why I was wondering if there could be any fix to make it nicer picture. If you have any advise for taking pictures for Aurora with iPhone 12 mini - I would as well highly appreciate.

To be brutally honest there isn't much you can do with this image, if you sharpen it you end up with a maze texture and all you are really doing is adding an edge to colour areas of the image which makes it worse. I would have to say this image is beyond saving and anything you do after the fact will not enhance it.

 

Re tips for using a Mobile Camera, take a look at a few links below: 

https://www.tourradar.com/days-to-come/how-to-photograph-northern-lights/

https://www.travelfoss.com/how-to-photo-shoot-the-northern-lights-with-your-iphone-aurora-borealis/

https://www.nightcapcamera.com/aurora-photography-photograph-the-northern-lights-on-your-iphone-with-nightcap/ (This one uses an app called NightCap and is approx $2.99

As @Robert_1979 has said, a tripod or at least some method of holding the camera as still as possible is a must for a long exposure.