Deer Park Heights Queenstown NZ

[ddigit]

This is a view taken from Deer Parks Heights and was taken showing Lake Wakatipu and the Remarkeable Mountains on the left hand side. I used a polarising filter and the resulting image was tweaked a little in Lightbox.
Technical stuff aside - the area was interesting because various parts of the hill were used for filming all three episodes of the Lord of the Rings films. We only intended sort of driving up and having a bit of a look but ended up spending nearly all days and of course took dozens of shots. If anyone is interested I will upload other images and try to relate them to the scenes.

Trev

[Stephen]

Re: Deer Park Heights Queenstown NZ

Great vista Trev, a place I'd love to visit.

Sorry to talk technical stuff again, but I put the photos into PS and it popped by comparison to how it appeared here. Then I noticed you were still using the ProPhoto RGB profile from Lightroom presumably. As I understand it this is better for printing from LR. Also felt it would benefit from some subtle sharpening in Smart Sharpen

[ddigit]

Re: Deer Park Heights Queenstown NZ

I really appreciate your technical input Stephen. I wondered why the image lost its character - I will have a look at the RGB profiles. I usually use Adobe RGB 1998 following a recommendation from a Scott Kelby book and have had no problems to date. I print from PS only. Thank you again

Trev

[yoshi]

Re: Deer Park Heights Queenstown NZ

Hi Trev,
beautiful place! Nice clouds in the sky on the both sides - big and small, well balanced. PL did work effectively. Quietness prevails the scene. About the colour of the grass - is it because of the tweak you mentioned? - Could be due to my monitor but looks to me too brown. If it was intended, then it's of course ok.

Could you please upload some more?
Hopefully you also give us some hints about the place you took those pics.
The South Island is my favorite place, though I've been there once only. It must be cold there now.
yoshi

[Ian]

Re: Deer Park Heights Queenstown NZ

I really appreciate your technical input Stephen. I wondered why the image lost its character - I will have a look at the RGB profiles. I usually use Adobe RGB 1998 following a recommendation from a Scott Kelby book and have had no problems to date. I print from PS only. Thank you again

Trev

We covered this topic late last year.

Unfortunately, even converting to sRGB doesn't completely avoid colour shifts and this is all down to the fact that web browsers, in general, don't support colour management.

But try it and see if there is an improvement.

I have to say that it's a smashing image - well done!

Ian

[ddigit]

Re: Deer Park Heights Queenstown NZ

Ian,

Really appreciate the advice. Read your tutorial and had another go. Think I have got my head around the concept now.

[ddigit]

Re: Deer Park Heights Queenstown NZ

Yoshi,

The place I took the photo is on a small peninsular called Kelvin Heights that juts out into Lake Wakatipu. The town of Queenstown is on this lake. A commercially run area called Deer Park is where the photographs were taken from. The grass colour was affected by the wrong colour space (Ian put me right and I have posted another version of the image under his last comment).
I will get some more images on in the next couple of days. Yes it is cold -6 degree frosts but usually followed by clear beautiful days.

Trevor

[Stephen]

Re: Deer Park Heights Queenstown NZ

Much better when in sRGB Trev, its like a different photo.

One other point, I have often found that when using a polorising filter with digital cameras, that I often get a kind of graduated blue effect in the sky. I see this in your picture, have you any thoughts on this?

[Ian]

Re: Deer Park Heights Queenstown NZ

Yes, it's much better now.

The hills in the distance look a little soft to me? On tends to be more sensitive to such things when the rest of the picture is so good

Also, I'd like to canvass opinion on blue haze and shadows, which we can see in the distance. This cane be 'corrected' - but should t stay as is or not?

Ian

[ddigit]

Re: Deer Park Heights Queenstown NZ

Hi,

Stephen I have just researched this matter and the consensus of opinion is that the condition can be caused using a wide angle lens with a polariser and has to do with the angle from the sun. I will be more careful in future. THis forum is great cause it makes me question effects and look up answers.

Trev

[Stephen]

Re: Deer Park Heights Queenstown NZ

Hi,

Stephen I have just researched this matter and the consensus of opinion is that the condition can be caused using a wide angle lens with a polariser and has to do with the angle from the sun. I will be more careful in future. THis forum is great cause it makes me question effects and look up answers.

Trev

Hi Trev, just spotted this as I've been working away this week. However from what you say the use of a polorizer may well be problematical unless the angle to the sun is spot on. Now from your research is this a situation which is more pronounced with digital or would the same situation apply with film cameras?

From my own point of view I've pretty much stopped using a polorizing filter unless I wanted to illiminate reflections etc. My feeling is that the extra saturation it gave to film when taking landscapes can easily be achieved in the software now. Darker/bluer skies can be applied if thats what you want and this can negate the need for the polorizer filter

[ddigit]

Re: Deer Park Heights Queenstown NZ

Stephen,

I googled the problem and this chap had the explanantion that made the most sense "Yes, you will get a deep blue sky, and wonderfully outlined cumulus clouds, but that sky needs to be a relatively narrow slice of a 360-degree pie. I'll shoot sky with a polarizing filter on a normal to telephoto lens, but not on a wide-angle lens. The amount of polarized light (and hence the effect of the polarizing filter) varies with the angle of the sun. A telephoto lens captures a relatively narrow angle, and hence the amount of polarized light removed is relatively uniform from left to right across the image. A wide angle lens captures a wide angle relative to the sun, and hence the amount of polarized light removed will vary from one part of the sky to the other; that will produce a banded sky.

While a polarizer is well-known and well-regarded for its effect on sky (if used carefully), I don't think as many people appreciate the beneficial effect it can have on foliage. I just received some transparencies of sword ferns, and the difference between an image with no filter and an image with a polarizing filter was amazing."

Based on this I will be more careful in future and as you say the saturation can be achieved in software if necessary. Thank you for your input.

Trev