Labor Day Weekend in Yellowstone

[wtlwdwgn]

Saturday and Sunday were wet and soggy (that would be me too) and a touch of early snow on some of the higher peaks. The bison out in the Lamar Valley were too far away to get any images. There were a few head of elk in Mammoth but otherwise the animals were not to be seen (at least by me). Of course today is nice but then I'm home now. That's okay, I'll be back in a few weeks.

[Kodiak]

Saturday and Sunday were wet and soggy…

Painterly niiiice!

[ied]

This capture does have that fall feel to it. Or is it because it feels like that here?

Irene

[NorthernFocus]

If the weather and critters cooperated all the time we wouldn't appreciate nature as much as we do. You captured the feeling as described.

[Saorsa]

I'm in Cody WY tonight and will be heading to Bozeman via Yellowstone tomorrow. After that I head in to see the hot springs and geysers.

Today was brighter. I didn't see any big critters at all except for a couple of Pronghorn outside the park.

I did find these smaller ones though.

[NorthernFocus]

...I did find these smaller ones though.

Who needs big critters if you can do that. Nice shots.

[Mike Buckley]

Such great mood and atmosphere. What a great stand of trees with the bison that complement it so well. The image would work even better for me in black-and-white.

[bnnrcn]

I like the painterly look a lot

[wtlwdwgn]

Thanks Mike and Binnur. Here it is in B&W.

[wtlwdwgn]

Excellent closeups Saorsa! Hope you get to see some bigger critters!

[Mike Buckley]

Did you create the black-and-white image by desaturating everything or by using a color filter? If the latter, what color is the filter?

The reason I ask is that if you use a yellow filter, apply just a hint of an S-curve and a tiny amount of Local Contrast Enhancement, you'll get a little more definition without losing the very appealing, soft look of the scene.

[wtlwdwgn]

Thanks for the comment Mike. I chose to convert to B&W in Lightroom. I didn't want to lose the diffuse effect of the rain so I didn't make a lot of changes. I'll try to 'enhance' it a bit more and see what happens.

[Brownbear]

Hi Steve,

Just to say that I absolutely love your image (for the composition, dreamy feel, beautiful detail and gorgeous colours, ie; the colour version) In fact it represents the type of landscape images I would like to capture one day, so I would like to ask if you could share more about how you photographed and post processed this image. Simply gorgeous! (in colour)

Thank you.

[Mike Buckley]

Christina,

Download the photo and observe the histogram. Notice that the dynamic range is very small.

This style of photography is not at all popular on photography forums because its look is the antithesis of photos that have pop. The key to retaining the look of the scene is to avoid doing the things that create pop: raising the black point, lowering the white point and increasing the mid-tone contrast.

It will he helpful to clarify that this is the style of photo that you can get when the scene includes rain or fog. Though photos that have smog and haze have similar characteristics (limited dynamic range and mid-tone contrast), the look is very different and, to most people's view, not nearly so pleasant.

[Brownbear]

Thank you Mike.. Will do.

It rains a lot where I live, so perhaps one day.

Christina,

Download the photo and observe the histogram. Notice that the dynamic range is very small.

This style of photography is not at all popular on photography forums because its look is the antithesis of photos that have pop. The key to retaining the look of the scene is to avoid doing the things that create pop: raising the black point, lowering the white point and increasing the mid-tone contrast.

It will he helpful to clarify that this is the style of photo that you can get when the scene includes rain or fog. Though photos that have smog and haze have similar characteristics (limited dynamic range and mid-tone contrast), the look is very different and, to most people's view, not nearly so pleasant.

[wtlwdwgn]

Thanks Mike and Christina. As Mike said any 'normal' PP can undo the effects of the rain on the image so I did very little to 'enhance' the image. It looks pretty much how it did when I took the photograph. You could look at it under the shower to get the real effect though.

[Brownbear]

Hi Steve,

Thank you for sharing. As soon as I find such a beautiful array of trees (the little one is special) I will try a shot on a rainy day!

Thanks Mike and Christina. As Mike said any 'normal' PP can undo the effects of the rain on the image so I did very little to 'enhance' the image. It looks pretty much how it did when I took the photograph. You could look at it under the shower to get the real effect though.

[wtlwdwgn]

Thanks Christina!