I ran across an interesting article on Space.com on the difference between human vision at night and the results produced by the camera. The article is by Scott Taylor and ititled How Cameras Reveal the Northern Lights' True Colors.
His aurora and other night photographs can be seen at his smugmug portfolio. Some of his aurora photographs are extremely impressive. (Prints can be purchased from the smugmug link if interested.) Taylor also offers photography workshops. Keep an eye on his blog for his 2013 schedule.
Now, back to the article.
It points out that auroras seen be the naked eye lack the strong color often seen when photographed by a camera. The human eye contains two types of structures for capturing light. One captures color and works best in strong light. The other works in low light conditions, but can't capture color only value.
Digital cameras, on the other hand, are capable of capturing color even in low light conditions.
The sensor used by digital cameras technically isn't capable of capturing colors at all. It can only capture value (dark/light). Color is produced by filtering incoming light to exclude all but certain wavelengths of light. Some parts of the sensor detect green light, another red and a third blue. Combined, they produce full color.
It's like having three eyes designed for low light conditions, filtered for color and then combined by the brain into a single image.
The article gives some practical advice when taking aurora photographs. Presumably, the advice should apply to other low light conditions.
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