Great Ocean Road

[embi]

Got up VERY early this morning, 3:40am, in order to make a trip to the 12 (now 8 ) apostles on the Great Ocean Rd.

I wanted to be there at sunrise and I am glad we slept in a bit as my original plan would have had us there way too early. Had plenty of time to get to the location I wanted to shoot from and here is the results.


Below is some other images from the day. No PP'ing on these except sharpening and borders. Mainly just some quick pics from the day

My much better half who is looking a little tired after I dragged her out of bed at some ungodly hour.


The fallen apostle.


A fern in the Otways

[BBJ]

Mark nice shots mate, when i was there got there late afternoon but i love the first pic B&W looks good. Great shots.

[DVEous]

... Obsolete ...

[waspo]

Hey embi, I went there today too!!
Except, I was lazy and didn't get there til 3pm.
Was very over cast and bad lighting. That'll learn me!
Anyway, you snapped up some nice shots! Well done.
Heres one I got and played around with the sky in PS.
Cheers, Jase.

[embi]

Jase you have some very rich colours in there. What was your exif data for that shot??

Here is the colour version of the above.

[waspo]

embi, colours came out flat as usual. Aperature Priority, iso200, 1/200, f/11, 18mm, center-weighted, cloudy-1.
I just tweeked the saturation in PS to bring out the colours. Nothing special.

[embi]

ah I am glad it was in PP....I couldnt get that sort of colour today

You didnt happen to go to "The Fly" today as well??

[waspo]

Sorry embi, 'The Fly'?
I wanted to get to some of the waterfalls, but was rushing to the Apostles. I don't know the area very well and ended up buying a tourist book from the Pt Campbell newsagents. They have some really tasty fish burgers there too!
Will try to work out which waterfall to visit next time and be a little more prepared.

[embi]

The Fly tree top walk ...we went there....not a lot to see but not bad either.

http://www.otwayfly.com/

We should have a mini meet field trip in the future.....I am willing to take a car. The 8 seater Prado should take at least 6.... (The 3rd row back seat may need to be used by only one person for comfort sake)

[waspo]

Hey, thats a great idea! I can take 2-3 as well.
I was buggered by the time I got home. (8pm.) Mind you, I didn't get to sleep til 2am in the morning. Got hooked watching an old Clint Eastwood movie, 'Hang'm high'!
Oh, yes the tree top walk. I was going to have a look, but was pressed for time. looks interesting though.

[chris1968]

embi - love the b+w shot,
hope you dont mind the suggestion - as i was scrolling the page down i 'cropped' the beach off ie the image took on a slight 'pano' feel and only had water / rock / sky, thought i looked even better....just a thought

wish i'd have been uo the GOR on there on my trip in oct 03 but i only had three weeks and that wee island of yours is a bit big to see all at once......

Chris

[Aussie Dave]

really, really nice Embi. Well worth the lack of sleep for these captures ! I can't decide if I like the B&W or the colour version more - but great composition !
Look forward to seeing more of your outing

Jase - I also really like to colours of your photo. Would be interested to see it without the PP'd sky

Nice one guys. Perhaps one day the Melb chapter will have to do a day visit down the G.O.R. ?? Maybe when the weather is a little nicer, later in the year

[waspo]

Dave, embi here is the original. No PP, No crop.

Looks pretty plain, aye? Do you think the gradient filter look is too much? I wasn't too sure. Just having a play with the colours, because I thought it would look a little more interesting. Maybe it looks unatural.
Any thoughts?
Sorry embi, I don't mean to hijack your post.

[embi]

No problems Jase...

Thats how mine came out yesterday after the sun had risen. I might have to play with the saturation in PS

[kipper]

Waspo, try using some of the various photo filters in CS/CS2. I have and they produce some interesting results with landscapes. I personally like magenta filters for scenery like this for some reason.

While I haven't been down to the 12 Apostles or Great Ocean Rd in a long time. I'd say the best time of day, and Mudder's and Deano's shots prove this, is very late in the day. As the light at this time of day produces very orange casts which will bring out the colors in the sandstone. So you'll have to find some decent advantage points in the west somewhere so that the light falls nicely.

Going on from this, Embi I think you'll see in your second shot that the lighting wasn't right as there is a fair amount of shadow on the right handside. There is also shadow being cast onto the apostle. I too had the same problem up at Sydney, I wanted to shoot the North Head / Quarantine Head from a ferry that we were on but it was deep in shadow all day and probably is best shot at dusk when the sun falls on it.

[embi]

embi - love the b+w shot,
hope you dont mind the suggestion - as i was scrolling the page down i 'cropped' the beach off ie the image took on a slight 'pano' feel and only had water / rock / sky, thought i looked even better....just a thought....

I like the suggestion....thats what this forum is about.

Here's the results.

[waspo]

Thanks Mark.
Darryl, I'll try the photo filter. Do I use it over the whole image or can/should I graduate it from the sky?

[Aussie Dave]

Jase
hope you dont mind, I had a play with your image
Let me know what you think ??

ORIGINAL:


WITH PP:


I adjusted:
Levels
Saturation (+35)
Shadow/Highlights
Polarisation Filter
Smart Sharpen (110% 0.5)
Straightened Horizon

Ah....the power of the PC

[kipper]

Personally, I prefer the sky not to be blue and prefer the colors of sunrise/sunset (eg. oranges, peaches, pinks with blues). I just find that a stock standard blue sky doesn't do these icons any justice.

[waspo]

Dave, that looks sweet!
I'm not a big fan of shadows/highlights though. I like to push the shadows out in curves.There is a slight greenish cast as well, but you bought out the sky, which I couldn't get!
Thanks for posting the PP info. That gives me a good starting point.

I usually PP with:
Black point, White point, grey point (not all the time) in Levels.
Curves.
Hue/Saturation. (also adjust each RGB channel if need to bring out one colour only.)
Smart Sharpening - Change % to suit
USM - If needed
Straighten/Crop

Sometimes I think I go overboard on PP.
Thanks Dave!

[Aussie Dave]

I try not to use the Shadow/highlights too much myself, but sometimes it can be a huge help....depending on the photo.

There is a slight greenish tinge isn't there. My rods & cones are still waking up....I didn't notice that before

Kipper - I agree, the bright blue sky does not always work in landscapes. I was just trying to boost what was in the image rather than add colours.....but each to their own This was just my take on it....

[waspo]

Dave, I love the sky! But for me, I noticed I got the horizon smack in the middle, hence the crop to make the pic a little more pano. Doing that, I cropped out the best part of the sky. That's what brought me to filter it for a little interest.
Damn, this is a great place for help! Thanks guys!!
I'm going to go out today and take more pic's in the hills...I really need some breakfast!

[embi]

Which hills??

[waspo]

Mark, I was going to go to Mt Macedon again, but the wife has had enough of travelling for one weekend.
I usually head to the Dandenong Ranges for lunch at the 'Pig & Whistle'.
Then I might just cruize around through the gardens. Might even go up to the lookout. Weathers pretty crap so may not get any good pic's.
Beats hang'n around home though.

[kipper]

Aussie Dave, that's cool, everyone to their own

Waspo, you can apply it to the whole image or apply it to a section of an image. From what I recall it's not graduated. If you want to do graduated you probably have to do like you've already done and make it a seperate layer and choose a blending style (most likely multiply, screen or overlay). Just fiddle until you're happy with the results, that's usually what I do

[embi]

....Beats hang'n around home though.

I have to come up with an excuse why I shouldn't stay home today

[waspo]

Dave, where did you get the polarization Filter?
I noticed you brought out the green in the foliage. I just can't manage it without affecting the cliffs.
Mark, I know what you mean.

I did a quick test with the Photo filter and graduated filter.

Graduated:


Photo Filter (magenta):


Is this too much? Should I just leave it natural or tone it down a bit.

[Aussie Dave]

Just had another quick go....I quickly transformed my 1st attempt into a pano (as below)



Basically, I made a copy of the land mass above the horizon, then selected the very top of the sky (which is bright blue), & dragged it down to the horizon, then pated the land mass back over the sky and blurred edges....as I said, just a quick attempt (3 mins)

[embi]

Tha last one looks amazing

[waspo]

Dave, what a great Idea! Never would have thought of doing something like that!
It almost emulates the ocean!

[Aussie Dave]

Dave, what a great Idea! Never would have thought of doing something like that!

It is amazing what can be done on the PC. Just another idea that I thought you could keep in mind for next time....

[Aussie Dave]

Dave, where did you get the polarization Filter?

Is this too much? Should I just leave it natural or tone it down a bit.

The polarisation filter is part of "Nikon Color Effects Pro" for Photoshop...a plug-in that has loads of different filters...in addition to the Photoshp ones that come standard.

Is it too much ??? I think it's a matter of opinion. My preference is for the more natural look, but that's not to say that the Graduated look is not as good. So many options.....you could sit there all day playing with just that one photo

[waspo]

Thanks Dave, I'll try and find it!
And yes, you can spend aot of time on one image!

Mark, I was meaning to ask you. How did you get onto the beach?

[kipper]

Sigh I've wasted half of my morning.....thanks guys

I tried various effects, graduated layers, solid layers etc. I did a graduated magenta but it didn't come out as good as Waspos original. I made some adjustments to the sky to give it a natural look instead of going the over rich blues. Hightlight/Shadow about 20% on the rocks and then saturation to both rocks and sea, then I selected the sea on it's own and brought out the ocean colors some more with saturation. Corrected the horizon with some rotation and cropped it a bit to make it into a bit of a pano.

[embi]

.....Mark, I was meaning to ask you. How did you get onto the beach?

I can tell you now it was a bloody long rope...

Gibson steps is where you need to go. Its just down the road from the Visitor Centre where the main viewing platform is.

Low tide is the best time otherwise you may not be able to get to the spot I took these shots..

[stubbsy]

Mark/embi - i really like the pano version of your first shot and think the B & W is superior to the colour version. Jase & Dave - what the discussion between the two of you has done to bring out the beauty in Jase's image is great.

Jase the filters Dave refers to are probably the nik color efex pro filters which both Chris (sirhc55) and I babble on about from time to time . There are version for PS here and one for NC here.

I liked these filters so much I bought them

[kipper]

Embi, is that the wooden steps all the way down to the beach?

I know the weather is a tempermental beast, and Dave is on the right track with adjusting the sky. Personally I'd prefer to see the clouds more wispy above the horizon instead of being a solid mass of white. So see what you can come up with in PS

Btw, if you want to see some landscape shots to die for. Check out NSN and take a look at some of the shots by Photosbyvito.

[embi]

Embi, is that the wooden steps all the way down to the beach?....

I think they used to be wooden but these days its concrete...

[kipper]

Lol, after look at my version after doing other things I've just noticed the ocean has a magenta cast to it (which is making it purplish)

[waspo]

Darryl, I like what you've done! Sure the ocean has a little bit of a tinge to it, but I've looked at some profession images and it's pretty close.
I also like your crop. You seemed to have included the nice blue area at the top. I may re-PP mine too.
Processing does chew the day up fairly quickly, aye?
And thats just one image. I haven't gotten around to the others yet.
What frame action did you use? Is it the Pang one?

Mark, I did notice the steps before the Apostles viewing area. Will have to check them out next time.
If we organise a trip there with some of the guys here, we could possibly stay at Pt Campbell the weekend and take early morning and dusk shots. Also, check out a few waterfalls as well.
I know Andy/Mudders been to a few falls around there. Anyone else know where the best looking falls are?

Stubbys, thanks for the link. I'll certainly give the filters a try.
Cheers, Jase.

[kipper]

Waspo, action? It's called set my background to white increase by 1px, duplicate, increase by 50-60px and invert action

I should really make it into an action or a script. But hey I'm lazy and have all these good intentions to make things to make my life more easy and never get around to finishing them


Oh and if we go to Great Ocean Rd, here is another limitation October onwards. Just taken my 18-70MM DX back to Teds today and it's been sent to Camera Clinic.

[waspo]

Damn, what was wrong with it?
It would be nicer in the warmer months anyway. I suppose we need to organise some solid locations first too.
We'll keep it open or a while before we make anything official.

Oh....and thanks for the frame tip. I'm still learning this PP stuff.

Also, what is NSN? Do you have a link to it?
Cheers, Jase.

[kipper]

When I was up at the Sydney meet I noticed a fair amount of play (more than usual) when zoomed out to 70MM. It also jammed up occassionally at 50MM when zooming to 70MM and also when going down to 18MM, more so the latter. It seems like something has broken with in the lens and is jamming the zooming mechanism. That is my assumption anyway.

NSN = NatureScapes.net or http://www.naturescapes.net

[waspo]

Darryl, that's a very nice site! Thanks for the link.
I noticed you also do pano's. Can you tell me what your typical set-up might be? I have trouble with getting consistant exposures so that all the images expose the same. Any thoughts there?

[Aussie Dave]

Darryl, that's a very nice site! Thanks for the link.
I noticed you also do pano's. Can you tell me what your typical set-up might be? I have trouble with getting consistant exposures so that all the images expose the same. Any thoughts there?

Jase, have you played around with "Exposure-Lock" ?? For the few pano's I've done, I have locked exposure and it seems to turn out not too bad.

[kipper]

I tend to always shoot manual instead of using aperture/shutter speed and using the exposure lock. Expose for the brightest part of the scene in manual mode, and don't change it between shots (not sure if this is the correct method or not). Make sure you don't shoot in WB Auto or if you do make sure that you change all of the images later on to the same Kelvin setting.

Now the next step depends on the program you use to stitch them together. I've found for best results use Panorama Factory and turn off the exposure correction as this tends to increase the exposure in parts where I don't want it to be, resulting in parts being too hot.

[waspo]

Thanks guys,
I will try this. I have tried Photoshops panostictch which looks easy to use.
Will give Pano factory a try too.
Cheers, Jase.

[embi]

I use autostitch...its free and it works a treat

[kipper]

Shrug, when ever I used autostitch I found it really bad for stitching. Major distortion? Then again it could of been user error.

However first go with Panorama Factory worked a treat.

[embi]

I'll have to try panorama factory then