Early Morning Roundup - CC

This was taken at Eaton's Ranch in Wyoming. The weather was changing, and it ended up storming that day. Rebel 350 with a 100-400 L lens all the way out to 400. I would guess that I was a quarter mile away.

The sky and everything is real. This did not require any post processing (except for compositional stuff - cropping to put the horizon put at lower 1/3rd and straightening, etc) to get it the way I like it. The colors, shading and everything else is out of camera.

Also included is a 100% crop, because I printed it at 24" wide, and the little tiny 900 pixel presentation here just doesn't do it justice. So, take a look at the crop, and imagine it that big.

Comment and Critique welcome and encouraged.

Rad

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I reckon it is exceptional capture. Isn't it a bit grainy on the sky? maybe try some noise reduction. But I like composition. Lucky horses do not overlay each other.

very nice

"Early Morning Roundup" makes me think there should be more action, or intensity. The cowboy has his hat up like he's really pushing the "herd" but all the horses have there head down, like they're saying...whatever dude. It would have been great if the horses were running, imo.

Mike

try changing the angle of the horizon to be as flat as possible. I'd keep the same ratios but cut about a 1/5th of the right side off the image so the far right horse is very close to the side of the image. Maybe bump up the saturation a little to bring out the orange and blue of the sky. The silhouettes are nice.

horsik wrote in post #13352239
I reckon it is exceptional capture. Isn't it a bit grainy on the sky? maybe try some noise reduction. But I like composition. Lucky horses do not overlay each other.

Horisk,

Thanks for the input. I had actually tried some NR – Photoshop and NIK Define and ran into the same problem with both: 8 bit posterization. With this narrow range of colors, there is just no way around it. In a case of “lesser of two evils” I pursued the version without NR. I don’t really mind the noise that much, because the sky was somewhat mottled IRL, not a contiguous smear, so I think that the noise gives the sky some of the texture that was present at the time.

As to the horses not being overlaid, that’s this frame, not the one before or the one after.

NeutronBoy wrote in post #13352706
very nice

Neutonboy,

Thanks

Mtn4Mike wrote in post #13352856
"Early Morning Roundup" makes me think there should be more action, or intensity. The cowboy has his hat up like he's really pushing the "herd" but all the horses have there head down, like they're saying...whatever dude. It would have been great if the horses were running, imo.

Mike

Mike

Good point on the title, maybe “Mountain Meadow Morning” or something a little more contemplative. My wife and I go to Eaton's Ranch nearly every year. For a little more action, take a look at this thread herefor some previously posted shots from earlier trips that I was able to sell. What makes this shot special for me is the fantastic sky. It was absolutely breathtaking!

(As it turns out, a photog from the AAA Travel Magazine came in the afternoon before. I gave him some input as to what to expect, best shooting locations, etc. After the shooting the next morning, he was thrilled - just blown away, and I am all like, “Yeah, same ol’ same ol’ – I wonder what’s for breakfast.”)

cameronrinut wrote in post #13353741
try changing the angle of the horizon to be as flat as possible. I'd keep the same ratios but cut about a 1/5th of the right side off the image so the far right horse is very close to the side of the image. Maybe bump up the saturation a little to bring out the orange and blue of the sky. The silhouettes are nice.

Cameronrinut,

Thanks for the comments, I really like a good silhouette shot, and I think this qualifies. Good thought on the horizon. This is actually a little rotated from my source file, but I will try a bit more. As cropping some off the right, I will take a look at that too.

Thanks all,

Rad

Very nice capture. Now turn it into a B&W and see how that looks.

Radtech1 wrote in post #13355325
Mike

Good point on the title, maybe “Mountain Meadow Morning” or something a little more contemplative. My wife and I go to Eaton's Ranch nearly every year. For a little more action, take a look at this thread herefor some previously posted shots from earlier trips that I was able to sell. What makes this shot special for me is the fantastic sky. It was absolutely breathtaking!

(As it turns out, a photog from the AAA Travel Magazine came in the afternoon before. I gave him some input as to what to expect, best shooting locations, etc. After the shooting the next morning, he was thrilled - just blown away, and I am all like, “Yeah, same ol’ same ol’ – I wonder what’s for breakfast.”)
Rad

Rad, thanks for that link, I really like those!