Rocky Mountain National Park

Colorado CJ

Its been a while since I've been up to the park. Normally it takes me 40 minutes or so driving up the canyon to get to the park, but the canyon road has been closed for a few months now while they rebuild it from the flood three years ago. So now, I have to go a round about way to get to the park, which adds about 45 minutes each way.

Anyway, I went up there for some hiking and photography. It was windy and cold, which wasn't too comfortable, but make for some interesting photo opportunities with all the blowing snow.

First I'm going to post photos from one camera. These are black and white IR photos, only using the light spectrum of 720nm and higher. I had another camera along and will post those later, they'll be on color and taken close to the same areas as these first photos.

RMNP 3 Dec 2016 1 by Andrew Marjama, on Flickr

RMNP 3 Dec 2016 2 by Andrew Marjama, on Flickr

RMNP 3 Dec 2016 3 by Andrew Marjama, on Flickr

RMNP 3 Dec 2016 4 by Andrew Marjama, on Flickr

RMNP 3 Dec 2016 5 by Andrew Marjama, on Flickr

RMNP 3 Dec 2016 6 by Andrew Marjama, on Flickr


I'll post the color photos as soon as I process the RAW files, hopefully later tonight.

roaddog52

A very nice set of B&W images. Some nice clouds, light and scenery . A few of them feel as if they aren't level, I realize it is sloping terrain, and this could be an optical illusion, but the first and second to last feel a bit unlevel. When you post multiple images at one time, it is most helpful to number them, so that others can comment easier on individual images.

Phil

Colorado CJ

Yeah, they don't feel level, but they are. The EM10 has a built in level that I always use.

The mountains can give some tricky perspectives.

Colorado CJ

Well I have the color photos finished.

Just a few notes on them. These were taken handheld and rather quickly, they weren't set on a tripod and framed as well as the IR photos. Also, there will be some differences in the field of view and rendering as I was using different focal lengths with the IR shots and I am stuck with one focal length on this camera 30mm. Lastly, the internet doesn't display full colors and tonal ranges compared to what you would see in Photoshop for example, so the images look better on my calibrated screen using in Photoshop than they will here on the web.

With that out of the way, here are the photos. These were taken on a Sigma DM2 Merrill, an APS-C size sensor camera. The Merrill uses a different type of sensor compared to others, called a Foveon sensor, which is three separate sensors stacked on top of eachother with each sensor responsible for each primary color. Because of this there is no interpolation like in other cameras and the detail captured is comparable with a high dollar medium format digital camera. It is one of my favorite cameras.

It is interesting to see the difference between the two types of images. The IR photos pick up a some different light compared to the color photos, so things like the leaves and grasses "glow" more than in normal light. I really like color, but there is a place for B&W. Its hard for me to make a judgment on which I like better.

RMNP 3 Dec 2016 DP2 3 by Andrew Marjama, on Flickr

RMNP 3 Dec 2016 DP2 4 by Andrew Marjama, on Flickr

RMNP 3 Dec 2016 DP2 5 by Andrew Marjama, on Flickr

RMNP 3 Dec 2016 DP2 1 by Andrew Marjama, on Flickr

RMNP 3 Dec 2016 DP2 2 by Andrew Marjama, on Flickr

denisegoldberg

It's very interesting to see the comparison. My favorite is the 4th photo of each set, with a strong preference for the color version of the photo.

--- Denise

pathfinder

Denice, I agree that I prefer the fourth image in each stack, but I find it hard to really choose between the color version and the monochrome version. My spouse pointed out that th sky is much more dramatic in the monochrome image and the color image sky is just pretty grey, and I agree with her assessment. I think that's why I tend to prefer the monochrome version. I like the color part of the image, but the sky can't carry its share of the image.

I think I'd like to see them stacked and blended in some way in PS to dial down the saturation of the color frame a bit and to add some drama to the sky maybe.

I do like the view down into the valley between the two mountain ridges in the fog. Fog is always nice dressing gown for a landscape.

denisegoldberg

pathfinder wrote: »

Denise, I agree that I prefer the fourth image in each stack, but I find it hard to really choose between the color version and the monochrome version. My spouse pointed out that the sky is much more dramatic in the monochrome image and the color image sky is just pretty grey, and I agree with her assessment. I think that's why I tend to prefer the monochrome version. I like the color part of the image, but the sky can't carry its share of the image.

Your spouse is right - I didn't notice that earlier. I agree that the sky is better in that image but I still lean towards the color photo. I think dialing down the saturation might be something I would also like though.

--- Denise