BISON IN THE BURN

[gary ellwein]

This is a lone bull captured in Yellowstone Nat. Park this Sept. between Canyon Junction and Hayden Valley. I particularly liked the bg of burned lodge pole pines. Nikon D810, Nikkor 200-400 @ 200, f10, EV+1, iso 1600, hand held. The light was low with a heavy cloud cover. Routine PP with minor cleanup of foreground distracting elements. I debated removing the foreground trees covering the bison. I left them as a leading line and frame of the bison's head and shoulders. C&C appreciated.

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Gary, why f/10, what was your thinking here????

Cheers
Steve

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi Gary - Good to see you posting in Wildlife. Steve took the question right out of my mouth. Why f10? For me, the trees on the far side of the bison are too sharp and in focus. I do like how the image shows that the bison are really everywhere at YNP including walking through the pines.

TFS,
Rachel

[haseeb badar]

Hi Gary -- This could work with B/W conversion , do have a try .
TFS !

[Gabriela Plesea]

Hello Gary,

I am also curious about the reasoning behind your settings, in particular the F10 - was it the trees in front of the subject, or the tall grasses around the bison you were concerned about?

I like the framing and composition here and fascinated with those fallen, as well as standing trees in the BG - what a lovely scene and I tend to agree with Hasseb, it might make a stunning B/W!

The image overall looks a wee bit "thin" to me, or "flat", so to speak. I am inclined to believe you have made some adjustments, but not selectively. Just curious, what was your SS?
You could bring this to another level with some careful PP work, should you wish to share a copy of the original image I am sure everyone will chip in with ideas and suggestions. Meanwhile, thank you so much for sharing Gary, and hope you'll be back with more:cheers:

Kind regards,

[gary ellwein]

Haseeb and Gabriela, thanks for the look and comments. The redo is a B&W at your suggestion.

[Gabriela Plesea]

I like it Gary, to me a great starting point but I would not stop here:) I would look at a curve adjustment to bring more pop...how about a simple linear curve? And some "burn and doge" to get more depth into those trees? Your title raises certain expectations, opening the thumbnail I wish for a more "burnt" look of the forest, of course not a smouldering look but a sketchy, almost drawing-like effect. This version is to me a tad "flat", maybe too conservative, too uniform? I love those stick-like branches in the BG very much, and yes a very busy BG indeed, but why not use it to create an interesting effect?

I am getting all sorts of ideas now, LOL, just throwing them at you, see where you can take this. I imagine the BG at the top darker than the rest of the image and gradually more light towards the bottom of the forest. On the forest floor those fallen logs like charcoal, the standing trees need maybe more emphasis on that white bark here and there. And I am not worried about too much detail in the subject, he could be just a dark silhouette among the trees, WDYT?

I have tried a few experiments with your image but I would have loved to have the RAW, too many adjustments on a small file can cause more harm than good. I won't share them, I think you are also excited about this and if you are inclined to spend more time on it, do share with us the results. Or send me a PM or an email. I am no pro when it comes to B/W conversions and still learning, but we could exchange a few more ideas on this one. Gary, I have the imagination but my "conversion skills" are not great. I like to play though:tinysmile_shy_t:

Thank you so much for sharing, listening, experimenting - this is what makes BPN a great place to be:)

Kind regards,

[gary ellwein]

Gabriela, I am happy you saw what I saw in the image. For me, the trees are an important element. In the B&W image, I tried to respond to Rachel's impression that the trees were too prominent. I tried to reduce the impact of the trees by decreasing contrast and applying a faint white vignette.

The second B&W image is the original converted to B&W with Nik Silver Efex Pro 2 Neutral. No additional post processing was performed. Let us use this as a starting point.

What was I thinking when I chose f10? There was no thought. Prior to this shot, I was shooting autumn colors and wanted to get foreground elements in focus. Hours later, while in heavy Yellowstone traffic, I spotted this fellow walking parallel to the road. I wanted to capture the image before he left the timber. I fortunately found a pull out, grabbed my kit, sprinted (verb used loosely) a hundred yards up the road and snapped off a few images between passing vehicles. The shutter speed was 1/132.

[Gabriela Plesea]

Hello Gary,

This is a better version IMO. BTW, Nik gives you other options too, neutral is perhaps a bit too "bland" and "uniform", might be a good exercise to look at something more dramatic like "Grad ND". Not saying you should use NIK as such, maybe just get inspired by what you see and try achieve it by other means? To me the bison is a mere "anchor" in the frame - it is the setting, the landscape itself, the trees, especially the fallen ones - that make the image so special and unusual.

Remember I asked you earlier what was your SS? I am sure you do realise that 1/132s is the problem here. This is the main reason why you struggled to achieve what you had in mind when you took this into PS, Gary. That much needed detail is just not there, sharpness is critical in some places and cannot be achieved in post-processing. I fully understand how this happened and I do not blame you - I do the same, LOL - shoot quickly because things happen and then change settings according to lighting conditions, movement, etc. I am just a bit more picky about what I share, because I know I will get hammered here by the others:)

So looking forward to more from you, we both learnt something valuable from this and came to some conclusions. Let's post some more, hope you'll stick around and give me some feedback on my "exercises" too.

Wishing you a lovely evening,

Warmest regards,