Making of "Fly Fishing"

October "The Outdoors" photo contest winner

By PF Staff in Photo Contests on Dec 9, 2012

The main element about making of this picture was being in the right place at the right time.  This was taken at Yellowstone National Park along the Madison River.  I was there with my two sons and a nephew.  We were staying in West Yellowstone and the night before was a late night.  I woke up early and decided to drive into the park while the boys slept.  I had the 55-300mm on the camera as I was looking for wildlife.  I pulled over to this area and there was this fantastic mist coming off the river and a light fog above.  It was bright enough as the sun was trying to burn through.  I probably could have used a little wider lens, but there was no time to change it.  I waited and got the fisherman in mid cast, took another shot, and within two minutes the fog and the mist were replaced with sunshine.

Equipment & Settings Used

• Camera: Pentax K20D (Hand held)
• Lens: DA 55-300mm F4-5.8 ED (at 55mm)
• Shutter Speed: 1/400
• Aperture: F14
• ISO: 200 (with expanded dynamic range)
• Shooting Mode: Av
• Metering: Multi Segment
• File Format: RAW
• Color Space: Adobe RGB
• White Balance 500K

Post-Processing

Adobe Photoshop CS3 Extended.

I did lower the brightness a little.  I also boosted the clarity, vibrance, and saturation a little.   I also had a speck of dust on the sensor, so I had to clone stamp that spot out.  Then I cropped the picture.

Here is the original photo (click to enlarge):

-ramseybuckeye, winner of PentaxForums.com photo contest #74