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kevindar wrote:
Really beautiful. interested in knowing what equipment you used, and how you balanced the exposure and dof.
Thanks, Kevin.
Nothing groundbreaking in the equipment department. I'm pretty old skool as it goes. Canon 5D3, 17-40mm, 3 stop hard-step GND. Gets me into the ballpark right away.
To render the sun star and get max dof I simply stopped down (diffraction be damned I say). I bracketed for focus, but didn't end up resorting to any focus blending as I was lucky enough to capture a few acceptably sharp (for me anyway) blooms in the foreground when the light was best.
Triple-processed in RAW, manually blended. Mountain grown. Good to the last drop.
zeelichsheng wrote:
Will a Jeep Wrangler sport with stock tires and no front- and rear- locks do? How long is the route?
Thanks in advance,
Yu
Stock tires are probably not as important as their condition. Don't know what your rig comes with. Something close to an A/T is advised. Plenty of tread is wise to grip the rock. We actually dropped the tire pressure a few pounds and were pleased with how that went (I know, it's against the manufacturer recommendation, but we weren't highway driving). Non-locking? Not sure about that - only ever used a basic, old-style 4WD. Could be a problem in some of the rougher terrain there. We used lo-ratio, old fashioned 4WD most of the time, mostly low gear at a crawling but steady pace. The main route is not so bad, hi-ratio is okay for much of it when it's dry, and it's about 40 miles long, but the scenery is not the best from it. It gets a lot rougher on the Wenatchee (north) end. The area is riddled with lots of junctions and side roads that are really rough, ungraded narrow tracks (and that's of course, where I found the best scenery). My friend has explored these roads off and on for 40 years and has the area almost completely mapped out. We were able to get to a great location he knew in just a few hours that I never could have found on my own (or with my limited 4-bying skills).
If it's rainy, the place turns into a giant mud bog, if you like that kind of fun. I don't. And the flowers are a crapshoot. They peak at different times and in different places every year, of course.
BTW, we were using a '96 4Runner with new Yokohama A/Ts (like less expensive Bridgestones) and it did great. I will not hesitate to take my Xterra next. Probably safest to have two rigs (or spare axles) in case one breaks down. I really don't think anything could pull you out of some of those roads.
Geoffrey, you are fantastic at using the gnd, as I do not see the transition point, and its not obvious. I am also impressed you got such good dof, as the flowers in the foreground looke like they are about a foot away. Just wonderful images. thanks for sharing the technical details.
GeoffreySchmid wrote:
Stock tires are probably not as important as their condition. Don't know what your rig comes with. Something close to an A/T is advised. Plenty of tread is wise to grip the rock. We actually dropped the tire pressure a few pounds and were pleased with how that went (I know, it's against the manufacturer recommendation, but we weren't highway driving). Non-locking? Not sure about that - only ever used a basic, old-style 4WD. Could be a problem in some of the rougher terrain there. We used lo-ratio, old fashioned 4WD most of the time, mostly low gear at a crawling but steady pace. The main route is not so bad, hi-ratio is okay for much of it when it's dry, and it's about 40 miles long, but the scenery is not the best from it. It gets a lot rougher on the Wenatchee (north) end. The area is riddled with lots of junctions and side roads that are really rough, ungraded narrow tracks (and that's of course, where I found the best scenery). My friend has explored these roads off and on for 40 years and has the area almost completely mapped out. We were able to get to a great location he knew in just a few hours that I never could have found on my own (or with my limited 4-bying skills).
If it's rainy, the place turns into a giant mud bog, if you like that kind of fun. I don't. And the flowers are a crapshoot. They peak at different times and in different places every year, of course.
BTW, we were using a '96 4Runner with new Yokohama A/Ts (like less expensive Bridgestones) and it did great. I will not hesitate to take my Xterra next. Probably safest to have two rigs (or spare axles) in case one breaks down. I really don't think anything could pull you out of some of those roads....Show more →
Thanks for the detailed info. This really helps a lot. I agree that the tire condition may be more important. The stock tires on my Wrangler are Goodyear A/T which still have good tread on them. I would consider to scout that area maybe next year when weather is dry and clear.
Beautiful shots, Geoff. After too many continuous years of drought eliminating our spring blooms, your photos make us Southern Californians think that living in the land of endless gray rain may not be so bad after all. (Actually, I say this as an ex-Oregonian.) I pick no favorites because I like them as a set. (Is that Palouse in some of the distant backgrounds?)
---John
zeelichsheng wrote:
Thanks for the detailed info. This really helps a lot. I agree that the tire condition may be more important. The stock tires on my Wrangler are Goodyear A/T which still have good tread on them. I would consider to scout that area maybe next year when weather is dry and clear.
Do you have any GPS track or map of that area?
Thanks,
Yu
Sorry, no I don't. There are some general maps available on the internet, but I relied on my friend for navigation.
jdc562 wrote:
Beautiful shots, Geoff. After too many continuous years of drought eliminating our spring blooms, your photos make us Southern Californians think that living in the land of endless gray rain may not be so bad after all. (Actually, I say this as an ex-Oregonian.) I pick no favorites because I like them as a set. (Is that Palouse in some of the distant backgrounds?)
---John
No, the Palouse is another hour or two east of here. What you see in the background of the first shot is the Columbia River gorge north of Vantage, the Crescent Bar area. The last shot is across the river to the east near the town of Quincy.
These are SWEET! As a future resident of your state (as of 1 July) and a fan of the road less travelled, I am especially intrigued by these spots you discovered. I spend as much time as I can on 4WD roads here in CO, so this sounds right up my ally. Well done!
Paul
kevindar wrote:
Geoffrey, you are fantastic at using the gnd, as I do not see the transition point, and its not obvious. I am also impressed you got such good dof, as the flowers in the foreground looke like they are about a foot away. Just wonderful images. thanks for sharing the technical details.
You touch on a point that I can't help but elaborate on. I feel that use of the GND is becoming a lost technique in this age of bracketing for exposure and blending in PP, but there's something about it that I like - it simply looks different, and brings to mind elements of classic images of Rowell, Muench, etc, that I like. Not to say I'm a master, but I thought I'd go into more detail, and I'll use the first image as an example. Many here will see the transition and otherwise dislike the results. That's cool.
First, you have to pick the right one for the job. Judge the exposure difference. This image called for a relatively strong filter (3 stops here - I have a reverse grad but it usually renders the foreground too light for me), and the fairly unbroken line with sun at the horizon presented for use of a hard grad. (Many nowadays will simply handhold a filter in front of the lens and wave it around to blur the gradation, and proclaim that PP would have been better.) I always use a holder and preview a lot to find the best placement. I carefully placed the transition line at an angle to follow the curve of the most prominent hill. This is not easy facing into the sun, but the DOF preview function of your camera will serve well. A little up, a little down, makes a huge difference.
In PP I dodge the highlights and upper mids in the transition area with luminosity masks (in this case the right third of the image was the most important). This is mostly tedious and trial and error for me - the wrong move will create haloes and other unnatural-looking effects. Sometimes aggressively dodging a single high-lit area that extends somewhat through the transition will do the trick (though if it extends enough, you should have used the soft-edge grad).
One of the problems with using a grad is that your foreground might be relatively lighter than the sky, even following the rules, which looks unnatural in most cases and is a pet peeve of mine. This said, I make that mistake all the time, unfortunately. The object is to balance out the exposure, but often you want to make it better than what the eye/brain remembers!
