105 days Europe Adventure

[BrownBoots]

#110 Seljalandsfoss, South Iceland.
Another one of the more popular waterfall in Iceland due to the ease of accessibility as well as the fun factor of being able to walk a slippery path behind the water cascade, which can be seen as the darken overhang in the lower part of the cliff.
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[BrownBoots]

#111 Road 864, North Iceland.
The vicious wind that preceded the incoming blizzard was mercilessly slamming onto my back while shielding my setup from getting blown over. The interesting feature of the rocks' noticeably snow 'tails' all trailing to the same direction of the wind in a precise manner caught my eye as we drove along 864 to Dettifoss.

A vastly different look to the rocks from the opposite direction resembled an illusion effect used in magic tricks, which unfortunately was unable to be captured due to the direction of the snow-spitting wind.
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[BrownBoots]

#112 Húsavík, North Iceland.
A gorgeous mirror lake within a private-owned farmland near the northern town of Húsavík.
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[kuantoh]

#112 Húsavík, North Iceland.
A gorgeous mirror lake within a private-owned farmland near the northern town of Húsavík.
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Awesome lighting and magnificent colors with reflections!

 

[BrownBoots]

Awesome lighting and magnificent colors with reflections!

Thanks KT, it was indeed a fine morning that day. Wished I have one of these in my backyard like those Icelanders.

 

[Kongfu]

Hi BB,

After going thru your series, I really have to say AWESOME!!!!!
Being a noob, I really admire the way your present and compose your photos. It's even more impressing to learn that they are not processed.
How I wish I could achieve your standard some days(hoping the day will come )..
Great work dude...keep it up

 

[BrownBoots]

Hi BB,

After going thru your series, I really have to say AWESOME!!!!!
Being a noob, I really admire the way your present and compose your photos. It's even more impressing to learn that they are not processed.
How I wish I could achieve your standard some days(hoping the day will come )..
Great work dude...keep it up

Thanks for going through the many pages of the series.

As long as you enjoyed the process of making images true to your feelings wherever you go, the gears or processing methods are all secondary.

Keep an open mind and before long, you'll see the improvements in your photography journey.

Cheers

 

[BrownBoots]

#113 Tempelfjorden, Svalbard.
Fjords are one of Norway's many famous attractions where ferries and cruises regularly ply their scenic routes, but it is only in winter Svalbard that you can ride a snow mobile across a frozen one. Seen here is one of the expedition team's member going around checking out the mini blue icebergs some of which can be seen in the distance though partially cover by snow.
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[Kongfu]

Thanks for going through the many pages of the series.

As long as you enjoyed the process of making images true to your feelings wherever you go, the gears or processing methods are all secondary.

Keep an open mind and before long, you'll see the improvements in your photography journey.

Cheers

That's a piece of valuable advise. Thanks

 

[BrownBoots]

#114 Rabotbreen, Svalbard.
The front half of the convoy stopping at Rabotbreen, featuring moon-like landscape, while waiting for the the last few expedition members to catch up after losing sight of them.
The winter sun never rose too far from the horizon throughout the day, providing excellent lighting condition to showcase the scarred textures of the glacier.
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[devine]

Simply breathtaking ..
A great master at work and brought wonders to our screen.

Cheers.

 

[BrownBoots]

Simply breathtaking ..
A great master at work and brought wonders to our screen.

Cheers.

Great master I am not, just glad to share the wonders of the world through my flawed interpretation.

Thanks for your massive encouragement.

 

[BrownBoots]

#115 Jökulsárlón, South Eastern Iceland.
The renowned glacier lagoon was eerily silent as the ash cloud from the Grímsvötn volcano eruption began devouring the glacier, casting an evil dark purplish blue hue as it did so. We were 3km+ from our car at this point when a fine layer of ash started to form on us. After taking some quick shots of the lagoon's last moment, we wasted no time embarking on a frantic run back to the car for shelter.

It was to be a long night taking refuge in our car covered with volcanic ashes in pitch darkness, whether we could survive till next morning or suffocated to death was left to fate. Thus began the first of many encounters with danger in Iceland.
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[BrownBoots]

#116 Mývatn, North Iceland.
Long stretches of rock formation on the west side of Lake Mývatn cracked like styrofoams under the powerful force of nature ages ago.
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[edutilos-]

#112 Húsavík, North Iceland.
A gorgeous mirror lake within a private-owned farmland near the northern town of Húsavík.
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Really nice... How do you handle barrel distortion/horizons so well in-cam? Care to share your tips/tricks?

I was also not aware that you could have a 5:4 ratio output in JPG... :dunno:

 

[BrownBoots]

Really nice... How do you handle barrel distortion/horizons so well in-cam? Care to share your tips/tricks?

I was also not aware that you could have a 5:4 ratio output in JPG... :dunno:

Thanks. It's true a 5:4 jpg output is not possible for a 450D, unless we're talking about a D3. For the 5:4 ratio images here, what I did was to compose them in live-view mode with a masked 5:4 ratio LCD screen. The default 3:2 jpg outputs are then mass sync to 5:4 ratio as per the initial composition. The supposed deterioration of image quality from overwriting jpg with jpg once or twice was hardly noticeable without pixel peeping. The few 3:2 ratio images you've seen here were usually composed with the viewfinder where 100% coverage is not that crucial.

There isn't really any secret tricks on handling barrel distortion/horizons. I shot mostly at 15mm (24mm@FF) where distortions are much less apparent than at say 10 or 11mm. Whatever minimal distortions left at the edges would have been eliminated by the 5:4 crop. I leveled horizons with the AF markings in the viewfinder as these marking lines are much finer than the grids on the live-view mode, giving more accurate level horizons. Of course this was done only when I have the luxury of time for composition.

 

[edutilos-]

Thanks. It's true a 5:4 jpg output is not possible for a 450D, unless we're talking about a D3. For the 5:4 ratio images here, what I did was to compose them in live-view mode with a masked 5:4 ratio LCD screen. The default 3:2 jpg outputs are then mass sync to 5:4 ratio as per the initial composition. The supposed deterioration of image quality from overwriting jpg with jpg once or twice was hardly noticeable without pixel peeping. The few 3:2 ratio images you've seen here were usually composed with the viewfinder where 100% coverage is not that crucial.

There isn't really any secret tricks on handling barrel distortion/horizons. I shot mostly at 15mm (24mm@FF) where distortions are much less apparent than at say 10 or 11mm. Whatever minimal distortions left at the edges would have been eliminated by the 5:4 crop. I leveled horizons with the AF markings in the viewfinder as these marking lines are much finer than the grids on the live-view mode, giving more accurate level horizons. Of course this was done only when I have the luxury of time for composition.

I see...

Thanks for explanation, I asked because I was looking through the thread again and I noticed this line in the first post.. So I was wondering how you could get 5:4 output out from DSLR... I don't think any camera has 5:4 output in JPG, actually..

All pictures posted are single-exposure jpegs without any post-processing except noise reduction for Aurora images.

I presume your 5:4 masking was done off-centre?

For example, for this image here:

The verticals indicate that it was indeed level (assuming no post correction), but a level camera would generally have the horizon more or less around the centre of the frame, as I've found through the years. Here it is higher than the centre, so the 5:4 mask was probably applied lower than centre, hrm.

Here you changed the mask? Now the horizon is lower than centre. Either that or you flipped the screen?

I wonder if you remember what tools you used for this shot below. I am wondering - it seems like a hard GND was used, but no hard GND I know has a curving line throughout to result in the haloes above the grasses?

 

[BrownBoots]

I see...

Thanks for explanation, I asked because I was looking through the thread again and I noticed this line in the first post.. So I was wondering how you could get 5:4 output out from DSLR... I don't think any camera has 5:4 output in JPG, actually..

No problem, someone also posted the same question on the 5:4 output without PP earlier to which I replied in post #78.
The D3 and S95 do actually have jpg output in 5:4, especially the D3 which will crop it's viewfinder accordingly when 5:4 ratio is selected. What I'm attempting is just a cheap imitation method of achieving this.

I presume your 5:4 masking was done off-centre?

For example, for this image here:

The verticals indicate that it was indeed level (assuming no post correction), but a level camera would generally have the horizon more or less around the centre of the frame, as I've found through the years. Here it is higher than the centre, so the 5:4 mask was probably applied lower than centre, hrm.

Very good observation here. The 5:4 mask is usually centered except for a few rare situations such as this one. The verticals of the house on the left demand a level camera, therefore the mask had to move downwards in achieving this composition. #22 has similar situation but that had the mask in the usual center position though. In both cases, priority was on the house for composition leveling instead of the less discernible horizon.

Here you changed the mask? Now the horizon is lower than centre. Either that or you flipped the screen?

This was a straightforward one. Mask as usual in center, foreground is on a higher vantage point than the frozen lake where the tracks are. Also no verticals to contemplate with.

I wonder if you remember what tools you used for this shot below. I am wondering - it seems like a hard GND was used, but no hard GND I know has a curving line throughout to result in the haloes above the grasses?

I wished I had a curving GND for this too but I don't. A hard GND was used indeed and the transition starts from just above the grasses for the halo horizon. If you look closely at the 2 corners where the grasses sloped down, you can see the flaw from the straight line transition.

 

[BrownBoots]

#117 Goðafoss, North Iceland.
Another spectacular waterfall of Iceland where statues of Norse gods were famously thrown into after Norse Paganism was abandoned for Christianity as the country's official religion in 1000AD. Image taken from the eastern bank of the rushing river Skjálfandafljót.
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[BrownBoots]

#118 Unknown location, Svalbard.
The second whiteout condition encountered in Svalbard, the first was during a dog sledging trip 3 days ago. Sector Whiteout as it is known, is caused by diffuse lighting from overcast clouds in polar regions and can happen without fog or snowfall. Horizon, distances, snow-covered mountains and slopes practically disappeared into a blanket of whiteness ahead.
The front and rear of the convoy lost visual contact here and were forced to halt, which was really timely as we were all getting tunnel-visioned and I sworn an accident was just waiting to happen.
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