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.
There some bullshit going on with phone cameras now I'm really not happy with.
I got a s22 thinking the camera would be great but its actually pretty shit. The default AI is pure bullshit it completely changes the colours "oh a blue sky. Wouldn't it be better if it was vomit inducing blue like a overly contrasted video game?"
Then when you turn that off it still overly brightens the picture.
I'm devastated with my phone because I thought at this point it would be near perfect photos but it's not. It's horribly optimised.
I would recommend a short primer on exposure and aperture on YouTube. Once you grasp those, the rest is pretty easy to understand. The key is timely manner, thats why photographers set up in advance, and practice.
The timely manner thing is the biggest one for me. The use case for phone cameras has always been a camera always on you, ready to go in an instant, to take those cool moment photos. If I'm going to use proper photography techniques, it's not with a phone camera.
Absolute piece of shit cameras with slow shutter speed for sure, even on the Ultra. I brought mine back for a cheap ass Pixel 4A and used that for two years instead. That has been outdone only by my Pixel 7.