Edit
To provide some context given the messages below. I was a professional photographer, and understand that getting a good photo is a skill. Exposure time, timing, location, and many other factors come into play when capturing a great image.
Seeing the aurora was a fantastic experience. The purpose of this post is to help reduce FOMO of those who could not see it. Many people who don't know these things will imagine dancing lights in the sky of brilliance, and will be saddened by what they missed. While they did miss something, it's important for them to know exactly what they missed.
Edit2 I should also note this is why I enjoy when photographers post gear, conditions, and settings alongside results. It tells viewers what was real.
Let me just say it bugs me when people apply filters to natural phenomena or pictures of animals because it alters my perception of how these things really look.
A little tweaking to improve clarity or contrast sure, but I’ve seen landscapes completely colorized in a way that almost feels like being lied to.
To be fair you don't really have to use filters for this. Cameras are much better at capturing the colors of the aurora while in person it looks like a faint white glow in the sky. Possibly some white-balance thing where it way overcompensate.
Cameras also need relatively long exposures to capture those so it'll also appear much brighter and vivid than we see with our own eyes, possibly because of the low light conditions we use our cones more than the rods.
It was actually really crazy last night when I was out. With my eyes I could just barely make out the white lines in the sky. Long exposure on my phone (~5 seconds) and it looks TOTALLY different. I would have never guessed there was all those purples and reds there. If my brother hadn't texted me and said pull out your phone and take a picture I would have gone back inside and just shrugged.
I'm in a pretty dark sky area in Australia, was able to make out the colours and waves / lines with the naked eye at its peak. Camera showed lush, bright reds even with about 10-15 seconds of exposure.
It may just be the light pollution where I am. I'm not too far from a pretty large city. I'm thinking that washed out a lot of what I could see with the naked eye.
Edit to post above to cover this. Thank you.
This is exactly why I made this post. See edit to post.