Kaitaia to the Cape

[Olderndirt]

Got this super-deluxe amphib Cub and want to see the 'John o'Groats' of New Zealand.

Off Kaitaia headed northwest.



Along the ninety mile beach.



Looking back at Great Exhibition Bay.



North Cape, reputedly the most northerly point of New Zealand.

[Ian Warren]

You can really tell photo-real when displayed but due to limitations we miss many other area s , thanks for VLC , ... now ya shore you not a Kiwi

[AlisterC]

man I'm a kiwi and I've never flown around the north of the north like that.. overhead at 35000 not counted. Nice pics, must try that flight sometime.

[Adamski]

Here Dave ... have you been getting cloud tutorials from Splitpin?

Great pics - they remind me of the summer we just had!

[Olderndirt]

QUOTE (Adamski @ Apr 27 2011,12:30 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Here Dave ... have you been getting cloud tutorials from Splitpin?

Great pics - they remind me of the summer we just had!

His version of REX and mine are from the same batch. After all the diddling around, trying to create a visually acceptable screenshot, having to reduce it to jpeg almost breaks my heart .

[Adamski]

QUOTE (Olderndirt @ Apr 28 2011,2:18 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

His version of REX and mine are from the same batch. After all the diddling around, trying to create a visually acceptable screenshot, having to reduce it to jpeg almost breaks my heart .

I know what you mean ... what compression settings are you saving them with? .. and ... are you converting to .jpg only as the very last operation?

[Olderndirt]

QUOTE (Adamski @ Apr 27 2011,6:20 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I know what you mean ... what compression settings are you saving them with? .. and ... are you converting to .jpg only as the very last operation?

Start out with .bmp from the 'V' and keep it there while I diddle with it. When I go to the almost final 'save as' it becomes JPEG. After that I run it through 'TOPAZ dejpeg' filter to see if I can clean it up which returns it to PSD. Once more back to JPEG and I'm done.

[Adamski]

QUOTE (Olderndirt @ Apr 28 2011,1:59 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Start out with .bmp from the 'V' and keep it there while I diddle with it. When I go to the almost final 'save as' it becomes JPEG. After that I run it through 'TOPAZ dejpeg' filter to see if I can clean it up which returns it to PSD. Once more back to JPEG and I'm done.

I'm wondering whether that final .psd > .jpg step is re-introducing JPEG artefacts <?>. What's your main GFX program? I use Photoshop and find the .jpg export function quite good.

[Splitpin]

Beautiful shots Dave Book yourself a holiday down here , and have a look at the real thing....plenty of us here to look after you.

[Adamski]

QUOTE (Splitpin @ Apr 28 2011,8:13 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Book yourself a holiday down here , and have a look at the real thing....plenty of us here to look after you.

Plenty of people North *and* South, I suspect. I volunteer for the AKL area! We could do NZAA, NZAR, NZWP, NZNE ... maybe even Coromandel and Waiheke! Sadly all by car, I'm afraid ... unless you want to bring your aircraft with you

[Olderndirt]

QUOTE (Adamski @ Apr 27 2011,7:26 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I'm wondering whether that final .psd > .jpg step is re-introducing JPEG artefacts <?>. What's your main GFX program? I use Photoshop and find the .jpg export function quite good.

This TOPAZ thing is supposed to help remove artifacts and other baddies. It has preview settings to show what you have and what you'll get. When I zoom, it all looks pretty clean but I know each jpeg save you lose a little. I inherited Photoshop Elements 7 from the wife - has most of the PS features. Normal routine is OPEN .bmp - CROP, ENHANCE etc .bmp - RESIZE .bmp, set pixelsperinch to 360 for 1024 width then bicubic sharper. - SAVE AS .jpeg then the TOPAZ DEJPEG and since it's a plugin it comes back as .PSD so it's once more SAVE AS jpeg. Ready for Photobucket.

[Adamski]

QUOTE (Olderndirt @ Apr 29 2011,2:22 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

This TOPAZ thing is supposed to help remove artifacts and other baddies. It has preview settings to show what you have and what you'll get. When I zoom, it all looks pretty clean but I know each jpeg save you lose a little. I inherited Photoshop Elements 7 from the wife - has most of the PS features. Normal routine is OPEN .bmp - CROP, ENHANCE etc .bmp - RESIZE .bmp, set pixelsperinch to 360 for 1024 width then bicubic sharper. - SAVE AS .jpeg then the TOPAZ DEJPEG and since it's a plugin it comes back as .PSD so it's once more SAVE AS jpeg. Ready for Photobucket.

Hmmm ... how do they look without the TOPAZ step?

You say "pixels per inch to 360" <?> ... I think you can safely leave this at 72 dpi. 300 or 360 is mainly for *print* resolution. Don't forget to set your colour profile to sRGB (or you'll find browsers remapping colours). That setting's usually in the "Save as" dialog.

I tend to use "bicubic (for smooth gradients)" when resizing, then applying any local or total image sharpening with the filter **immediately after the resize**. If you do it straight away, the filter works on the *original size* (which is still in the memory buffer) and does much better interpolation. Do a few edits and you'll lose that (larger) buffer and the sharpen won't be quite as good.

I save to .jpg at round 9-12 quality (rarely less than 9) and don't see any flattening of gradients or artefacts. If you can grab any of my images and open then in your Elements, see what info they carry over - then maybe re-save a few times with different filters/settings/+-TOPAZ and compare.

EDIT: Forgot to add ... my brother uses Elements (quite an early version) and it does seem to perform in a similar way to my PS CS5. He does a lot of photography and gets by quite well without all the fancy doodads of the full-blown Photoshop.

[cowpatz]

Where's the light house?

There seems to be a lot of blue tone in your shots there Olderndirt....some almost appear as a water colour painting.

[Timmo]

QUOTE (cowpatz @ Apr 29 2011,9:42 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Where's the light house?

There seems to be a lot of blue tone in your shots there Olderndirt....some almost appear as a water colour painting.

I actually removed them from the dataset at beta stage in VLC because the models in the default library aren't particularly NZ looking..... Modelling some typical NZ lighthouse designs could be a good project for someone to do in the future?

[Olderndirt]

QUOTE (cowpatz @ Apr 28 2011,2:42 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Where's the light house?

There seems to be a lot of blue tone in your shots there Olderndirt....some almost appear as a water colour painting.

Don't know nuthin' about no lighthouse. Must've been one of my 'blue' days. Sometimes I'm accused of being overly green - so far I don't think I've OD'd on red .