Official Wyoming Picture Thread (Casper: inspector, Walmart, offering)

[VTRockHound]

Hi everyone! I'm new here, and I figured the best first post would be to dump a bunch of pictures of Wyoming from when I was driving through May 25-28, 2012. Great pictures from all of you, and I'll be starting a thread with some questions since I'll probably be relocating there sometime within the next 6 months.


The Bighorns getting some snow, as seen from I-90 near Buffalo.


Heading up into the Bighorns on US 14.


Fresh snow near Granite Pass.


Shell Falls


Neat lighting in Shell Canyon. No snow down here.


Shell Canyon


My trusty vehicle performed admirably in some pretty remote places all summer.


Shell Canyon


Looking up from the bottom.


Buffalo Bill Reservoir after sunset.


Buffalo Bill Reservoir


Snowing on the N. Fork Shoshone River behind Yellowstone Valley Inn.


A break in the snow.


Some bighorn sheep near the East Gate of Yellowstone.


FINALLY nice weather near Sylvan Pass.


Fumarole on the shore of Yellowstone Lake.


A lazy bison near Mud Volcano.


A newborn bison calf getting up to take its very first steps.


Lower Falls, Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone


Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone


This grizzly caused a traffic jam.


Norris Geyser Basin


Norris Geyser Basin


Norris Geyser Basin


Yellowstone Lake by the end of the day. Same day as all the other Yellowstone pictures.


View from Signal Mountain, GTNP.


The only view of the Tetons I got that day... I think this is the bottom of Mount Moran?


Next day was a bit better... still never saw Grand Teton's summit, though.


String Lake


Teewinot and part of Symmetry Spire. Grand Teton's summit hides in the clouds in between.

[volosong]

Originally Posted by VTRockHound

The Bighorns getting some snow, as seen from I-90 near Buffalo.

Awesome river terraces.

Nice pictures. Looks like some of them had HDR processing applied. Well done!

[VTRockHound]

Originally Posted by volosong

Awesome river terraces.

Nice pictures. Looks like some of them had HDR processing applied. Well done!

Thanks! Yeah, most of them were HDR, but it's more obvious on some than others. The super bright clouds over poorly illuminated ground made a lot of the shots difficult to capture with a single exposure, and I didn't have a graduated filter to use.

Some of my favorite terraces are along the Big Lost River and elsewhere near the Lost River Range in Idaho, especially in locations where streams flowing out of the range change course slightly when the fault slips. I need (a lot) more time to explore the Tetons... I bet I could find similar locations there.

[volosong]

Originally Posted by VTRockHound

...most of them were HDR, but it's more obvious on some than others...

Most impressive! Without a doubt.

Would you mind sharing your processing steps? (To a photographer trying to take decent shots since I got my first SLR in 1976.)

[WyattE]

Thanks VTRockHound! Awesome photos! I think I died and went to Wyoming Heaven looking at those!

[VTRockHound]

Originally Posted by WyattE

Thanks VTRockHound! Awesome photos! I think I died and went to Wyoming Heaven looking at those!

Thanks! I died and went to Wyoming heaven taking them, even with the iffy weather. :P

Originally Posted by volosong

Most impressive! Without a doubt.

Would you mind sharing your processing steps? (To a photographer trying to take decent shots since I got my first SLR in 1976.)

Thanks!

First of all, proper composition, exposure, shutter speed, and depth of field are necessary no matter what you're shooting with. Practice and experimentation are key here (and digital is the least expensive way to get in lots of them).

I shoot pretty much everything in raw format with 3 bracketed exposures (-2,0,+2 EV), and that way if the proper balanced exposure for a scene has blown highlights or shadows, one or both of the over- and underexposed shots should be able to recover those areas.

As far as processing is concerned, my steps are pretty digital-specific. There are darkroom tricks to accomplish the same thing with film, but only if you're doing your own processing.

Anyway, if the dynamic range needs to be compressed due to bad highlights or shadows (and it's more than I can squeeze out of the raw file), I create an HDR image in Photomatix, using the exposure fusion mode (it's the least drastic processing method the software offers). The settings I use vary widely from shot to shot; I just move the sliders until it looks the best.

Once I'm done with that (or if I didn't do it to begin with), I open the image in Photoshop using the raw editor (even if I've made a .jpg in Photomatix - I just like the raw editing interface). First I make sure the proper camera color profile and lens corrections are applied. Then I adjust the white balance/color temperature so things don't look strangely tinted. Photoshop's raw editor has a blue/yellow adjustment and a green/magenta adjustment. Sometimes I'll start with a preset, sometimes I'll use the dropper tool to grab what should be a neutral gray in the image, and sometimes I'll tweak the settings further manually. This is key, as most auto white balance settings on cameras are just about useless, and situational lighting presets can almost always use some fine tuning.

Now that I have the colors I want and no more lens distortions, I'll up the clarity slider a bit if I feel like it needs more small-scale contrast. I'll do coarse exposure adjustments too to make sure I can see everything in the scene properly... decrease the black level if shadows are still blown, increase/decrease the exposure compensation if the whole thing is too dark or light, apply some fill lighting if there are a few large dark areas, or apply highlight recovery if the highlights are blown.

Then I'll adjust the luminance and saturation of individual colors... if the sky is too bright, I'll decrease the blue luminance. If the vegetation looks dull, I'll increase the yellow and/or green luminance. If the vegetation is too colorful, I'll decrease the yellow and/or green saturation (or vice versa if it's lifeless). Basically I'll play with colors until it looks right to me.

All the messing with colors inevitably changes the exposure, so now I fine tune it using the exposure curve, dividing brightness values into 4 blocks and individually balancing them for best effect... sometimes it'll need some compression, sometimes it'll need extra contrast, and sometimes it'll need a combination of both.

Now I'm done with raw editor. I crop it if necessary to fix any composition problems or vignetting that didn't get fixed in the beginning of the process, and I resize the image down to 1920x1280 unless I plan to make a large print of it. If it looks too soft, I'll use the Smart Sharpen tool to apply just a little bit of extra sharpness to it. Generally no noise reduction is required, as I don't usually let the ISO increase to where noise becomes an issue, and the sensor in the Nikon D5100 is pretty great anyway.

And that's all there is to it! :P

[volosong]

Originally Posted by VTRockHound

...with 3 bracketed exposures (-2,0,+2 EV)...

Ah! That's the key. Plus/minus 2 is a lot. You are using burst mode, I assume?

I've been using Photoshop since version 2.5, (the first Windows version), but never have figured out how to use curves. Looks like I'll need to learn. I've been all digital since mid-2004. I've heard about Photomatrix too, but all the images I've seen people produce look like crap. Their colors are all psychedelic. Most of yours are very realistic and natural looking.

Thank you so much for taking the time to write up an extensive description of your procedures. I'll have to print it out and study it awhile.

[Bob12]

Great pictures, Thanks

[volosong]

A few snapshots from this past April 2nd on the road between West Yellowstone and Madison Junction. The road was open to bicyclist only, (no public motorized vehicles, except for the vendors getting the park ready for the spring opening to the public). It was a wonderful ride. A bit bummed that I couldn't continue on to Upper Geyser Basin. Was told there was still ice on the road in some areas, and that it was bear mating season. The road to the geysers opened to cyclists the following week, but I had to get back to my teaching assignment.

The empty road with several cyclists approaching me.


I almost ran into these little fellows after I rounded a blind curve. Since they were determined to maintain the high road, I dismounted my bike and went to the low side and just waited until they passed. Majestic critters.




Random shots along the road inside the park.






Elsewhere in the park.

[VTRockHound]

Originally Posted by volosong

Ah! That's the key. Plus/minus 2 is a lot. You are using burst mode, I assume?

I've been using Photoshop since version 2.5, (the first Windows version), but never have figured out how to use curves. Looks like I'll need to learn. I've been all digital since mid-2004. I've heard about Photomatrix too, but all the images I've seen people produce look like crap. Their colors are all psychedelic. Most of yours are very realistic and natural looking.

Thank you so much for taking the time to write up an extensive description of your procedures. I'll have to print it out and study it awhile.

No problem! A lot of it's practice, but there are a few technical things that I almost always do that I think help a lot, and it's one less thing to have to figure out. :P

Your latest shots are great, by the way... I need to get back to Yellowstone next spring! Or maybe this weekend... I just got an unexpected day off Saturday, and I already had Sunday off. My last day off (last Sunday) was spent in Buffalo and the Bighorns.