My Kind of Landscapes

[jbtaylor]

I recently went to the Oregon coast to play golf (what a shock). This is the best golf west of Scotland. I rented the Zeiss 16-35mm 2.8 lens.
This is what I shot.

[aster]

Hi Jbtaylor,

Actually, I like the moody atmosphere, the haze and maybe even the windy conditions and the landscape is remarkable with all those abrupt changes in height and vegetation. For a golf course it must be quite a test for golfers with so many elements interacting; even getting the ball in the right spot must be requiring expertise. The ball probably makes a lot of curves, laterally and vertically, I suppose.
At least that's how it appears to me.

I don't think it's the lens but somewhat the photos are a little soft , especially in the foreground where the haze doesn't kick in as affectively as the farthest hills and sea/water surface. I've seen very sharp outcomes from CZ 16-35, so maybe the reason was uploading them at these web sizes.

Thanks for sharing and I hope yous cored some good points.

Yildiz

[jbtaylor]

Thanks for the comments aster. I have never been able to achieve the sharpness that others do when posting their images. I convert the RAW to JPEG and just upload them. I do not understand the concept of downsizing or rightsizing images. Any tips would be appreciated.
A few more for your viewing pleasure.

[harvey]

Thanks for the comments aster. I have never been able to achieve the sharpness that others do when posting their images. I convert the RAW to JPEG and just upload them. I do not understand the concept of downsizing or rightsizing images. Any tips would be appreciated.

What software are you using?

Once you downsize the image to the number of pixels you want to show on the forum you can sharpen the image before saving as a JPEG.

Harvey

[harvey]

I like the staircase.

If you want rainy landscapes then Orgeon is the place to go given the number of rain-days they have.

Harvey

[jbtaylor]

I work in Photoshop Elements 7. After RAW conversion, I "save as" in a JPEG file format. The JPEG options box has an image quality of "mamimum" with a numeric value of 12 (highest). The format options is (Baseline) Standard. No other work is done. That image is uploaded to the site. None of the images are sharpened as I can never tell if it improves the image.
Any thoughts?
Thanks folks.
JT

[harvey]

I work in Photoshop Elements 7. After RAW conversion, I "save as" in a JPEG file format. The JPEG options box has an image quality of "mamimum" with a numeric value of 12 (highest). The format options is (Baseline) Standard. No other work is done. That image is uploaded to the site. None of the images are sharpened as I can never tell if it improves the image.
Any thoughts?
Thanks folks.
JT

Thost JPEG save options just affect the quality of the compression (and size of the file).

As for sharpening...

Take the third image you posted of the wood.
According to the Adobe website you have an Enhance > Adjust Sharpness option. Use that with the preview toggled on and off to see the effect as you change the amount of sharpening.

If I load your image in photoshop CS4 I see it snap into sharpness when I use one of the sharpening options. The grooves in the wood look a little fuzzy without the sharpening.
I would do this at 100% magnification and this would be the case when the size of the image had been reduced for display on the forum.
Also don't oversharpen and watch what happens to any areas without edge detail.

Hopefully others with that software can offer more advice.

If you like the images better without the sharpening don't do it.

Harvey

[jbtaylor]

"I would do this at 100% magnification and this would be the case when the size of the image had been reduced for display on the forum.
Also don't oversharpen and watch what happens to any areas without edge detail."
I don't understand this statement. Who does the reduction in image size for display on the forum? Is this something I do in addition to my workflow or is it done automatically when saving it as jpeg?
Thanks again.
JT

[harvey]

"I would do this at 100% magnification and this would be the case when the size of the image had been reduced for display on the forum.
Also don't oversharpen and watch what happens to any areas without edge detail."
I don't understand this statement. Who does the reduction in image size for display on the forum? Is this something I do in addition to my workflow or is it done automatically when saving it as jpeg?
Thanks again.
JT

I was assuming that your camera produces images much larger than these and that they were resized for display on the web (for pbase I guess since that is where these seem to be linked from).

Harvey

[jbtaylor]

No difference in post processing, but these do appear sharper. What say you?







How about one for kicks?

[aster]

You're right.
The softness must be due to the haze in the previous photos then.

And, Jbtaylor, you may not have noticed yet but it seems you are being stalked by a barefeeted stalking ghost that can only be fathomed from wet traces his wet limbs leave behind...
Ok, not the best of jokes but you 'are' in Scotland and the country is famous for hauted castles and chateaus!

Thanks for sharing the lovely golf course. A couple of notes on the previous post: I really like the stairs and the way it becomes invisible in the mist in the far end; And also the wood grains and the silvery water.


Yildiz

[UrsaMajor]

[

You're right.
The softness must be due to the haze in the previous photos then.

That situation is very common on the Oregon Coast - along with frequent rain. There is a joke that you can always recognize the people who live there, because they have webbing between their fingers and toes.

Here are a couple of photos that I took along the Oregon Coast on a family vacation in 2005, using a Minolta A2. The first picture is of my older granddaughter running on a beach, and the second was taken when we stopped in an area of rocky shoreline where the waves do interesting things when they arrive at the shore. As you can see, there is a lot of haze in both of the images.

The haze and fog is not surprising in the first picture, since it was taken about 9 in the morning, but the second photo was taken about 4 in the afternoon, when fog and haze would normally be burned off by the sun in most places. Even more surprising in my eyes is that in the second picture the fog and haze is farther inland than in the first picture that was taken earlier in the day.

Oregon-11A.jpg

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Oregon-07A.jpg

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With best wishes,
- Tom -[/color]

[jbtaylor]

Looks familiar to me. The 2nd image is particularly nice as the color and the flowers provides a 3rd layer to the scene.

[aster]

Hi UrsaMajor,

Lovely, playful mist it is bringing a change of appearence to everything in the scene from the reality. I like them both but the blazing flowers indeed liven the whole photo softly bending to the wind...and the driftwood adds an eerie tone.

Yildiz