Aurora Borealis

A couple of years ago, while on a flight to Europe, I enjoyed a spectacular display of the Aurora Borealis over Hudson Bay. I grabbed my old digital camera, shut off the flash, set it for about 1 second exposure, and attempted to take a picture of the Aurora. When I uploaded the photo at home, it looked like a dark photo with a very pale -- almost not visible foggy patch angling across the image. Didn't look anything like the Aurora I had seen. I'm not sure why I even saved the photo, but I did.

This weekend, for some reason, I ran across this photo again and decided to try to enhance the lighting with Photoshop Elements. I used the Auto Levels command, and voila -- the beautiful green curtain-like Aurora appeared! Not bad for a night-time hand-held shot looking out the window of a commercial jet!