Another Moonlit Icon

[Roman Kurywczak]

It dawned on me that all the years I have been doing night photography.....I have never photographed old faithful! I remembered why when I tried to set up around 9pm......flashes firing off all over the place and the lights from the new visitor center creating some challenges that I wasn't able to overcome! Nothing a visit at 3am couldn't take care of. Imagine......I was at Old Faithful all alone!!! It was still tough to avoid the light from the other lodges.....but no car drive by's to ruin the lighting. Canon 1D mark lll for 30 seconds at f4 and ISO 6400 all tripod mounted w/ bubble level in HS......fired flash once.

[Roger Clark]

Roman,

Another nice one! Although the foreground is a little uninteresting and the separation of the foreground to the distant hills is a little segregated from the foreground, so there is no lead-in. But I understand the difficulty of making images in this location. I've actually photographed from the same spot during the day many years ago (on film).

It looks like you were looking northwest and the constellation Cygnus is setting. The top of the Cygnus cross is just to the left of the geyser. You can just make out the North America nebula to the left of the top star in the cross (Deneb).

One thing I would say about working at ISO 6400, is that bright and intermediate stars are saturated thus losing their colors. If you back off to ISO 800 (or at least 1600) you'll still get the same information (faint detail) recorded and can bring up the brightness in post processing without losing the star colors. The difference in noise floor at ISO 800 will be so small you would need scientific measurements to tell the difference with ISO 1600 on the 1DIII, and even a scientific measurements gives the same noise floor at ISO 1600 and up.. ISO 800 would give 3 stops more dynamic range to keep the star colors. Then an image processing program like ImagesPlus could help in processing, maintaining small diameter stars and star colors. The noise floor on the 1DIV and 5DII is significantly lower than the 1DIII, in case you are interested.

Anyway, beautiful images. Wish I was there with the time to stay up all night too (instead of in a meeting viewing power point presentations)!

Roger

[Judy Howle]

That is very impressive! You captured it really well and the light on the geyser and foreground is just right.

[Dave Mills]

Hi Roman, another skillfully executed image. The soft color of the geyser is appealing along with the offset placement. Just enough foreground and a galaxy that adds so much interest.

Are those small wisps in the backround also steam vents?

[Andrew McLachlan]

Hi Roman,

Another fine nightscape image. This and your previous post are simply amazing. Love them!

[Robert Amoruso]

I am liking the FG - a feeling of desolation. As always, skillfully executed.

[Arthur Morris]

Superb design and execution. Was the flash used to light the foreground grasses.

Roger, please explain what you mean by "noise floor." I found reading your comments most interesting.

[Roman Kurywczak]

Superb design and execution. Was the flash used to light the foreground grasses.

Roger, please explain what you mean by "noise floor." I found reading your comments most interesting.
Thanks all! Artie.....I'm interested in Roger's comment too! As for the flash....it was was for the geyser eruption mainly, but I'm sure I had a bit of bleed .......trying to get a bit of detail in the steam plume and the rest was moonlight and ambient light pollution from the lodges.
PS Dave....yep.....it's more stem rising in the basin.....amazing how much of it was rising!

[Susan Candelario]

Hey Roman,
This is simply spectacular! What else can I say other than I wish I would have been there. Hopefully on your next tour.
~Susan