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Thread ID: 87280	2008-02-15 02:54:00	NZ Landscape Photography	Nomad (952)	PC World Chat

Post ID	Timestamp	Content	User
640520	2008-02-15 02:54:00	Hi people, I am a hobbyist. I have never travelled v much domestically preferring to go abroad as it got more to offer in terms of a culture shock. One thing NZ has is great landscapes. Those postcard shots if you know what I mean. Probably from the West of Christchurch (West Coast side) and down to say Queenstown and in the centre North Island. Those sites, how far are they away from general accommodation? Do I need my own motor vehicle and is a 2WD ok? Is walking an option. I will assume that bus is not in order cos I will be needing to stop regularly. For the hikes, there are low mileage day hikes, that I don't need a guide right? And its pretty safe not get lost? Not right now but in the near future. Thanks.	Nomad (952)
640521	2008-02-15 04:07:00	Nomad: It does depend if you want expensive or budget. Most of these places have accommodation of most types nearby. Queenstown can be expensive, but that town really only exists to take the money out of the tourists pockets. As you walk down the main street you can hear the ring of the cash registers (rarely in time or in tune) and the sound of the shopkeepers as they rub their hands together with glee. SWMBO and I did the South Island recently in a small campervan. What a great idea taking your home with you! Cost about $100 per day for cheapest plus fuel and camping ground charges, $10 - $20. There are some great sights from one end to the other. Don't let anyone put you off the Kaikoura Coast. I have heard many say it is a waste of time, but if you like pure rugged beauty, you should not miss it! Don't forget to take the cable car up to the top of the Port Hills. Great view over the north-eastern beaches. It leaves from near the northern portal of the car tunnel. And when you bring your photographs back you might be interested in looking at a free programme called IrfanView. It does most things other picture editing programmes do but has an additional handy use. If you take (say) three pictures to make a panoramic view (on your tripod of course) you are able to stitch them together to make a rather impressive photograph. Do hope that you enjoy yourself and would love to see some of your pics on your return.:)	Roscoe (6288)
640522	2008-02-15 04:38:00	You won't have any problems finding accommodation but depending on the time of year some may be booked up . For instance Christchurch was apparently fully booked up when Bon Jovi was here last week . Most places have the full range from camping grounds to expensive hotels and everything in between except for the little towns in the out-of-way places . Do remember too that down here there is a lot of travelling between our bigger towns/cities, unlike up the North Island where you come across a little town every half an hour or less . We are far more spaced out down here . You will need your own vehicle and 2WD will be fine . I wouldn't recommend walking unless you plan to hitch hike but I don't know what your chances are with the latter . You might be waiting a while in some of the less-often visited spots . You could catch a bus but like you said, you won't have the freedom to stop where you choose . No guides are required unless you want to walk on the glaciers, and as long as you stick to the tracks you won't get lost . We have some awesome places down here that are a photographer's dream . I would suggest going to a visitors' information centre like iSite and ask for more information there .	FoxyMX (5)
640523	2008-02-15 08:56:00	Nomad I also do a lot of photography. I was at Queenstown a couple of years ago and the weather was not up to taking great shots so a bloke in the Mall there was selling Framed Photos, The same photo's just rolled up thus cheaper, plus all the photos on display on a CD, I got the CD. On looking through them at home (Auckland) about 50% I could take without climbing a mountain or hiring a Helicopter, but some were spectacular shots from high locations. Some a 4x4, the rest just a car to get there. They covered from The Fox/Franz Joseph Glaciers, down to Milford, Te Anau, Queenstown, Arrowtown areas. A lot on the Cd would make great 8x10's or maybe larger, but alas they just sit in my cupboard on the CD. The downside of doing the same photos myself I would have to have been in the area all year to get perfect days and seasons on the CD.	Bantu (52)
640524	2008-02-15 12:51:00	For the hikes, there are low mileage day hikes, that I don't need a guide right? And its pretty safe not get lost? well that obviously depends on where you go and how fit/experienced you are. general rule of thumb is if going hiking/tramping, don't go alone incase of injury - take a friend and if you don't want to get lost, take map and stick to the track. imho, alot of the best views are only reachable on foot	motorbyclist (188)
640525	2008-02-16 01:33:00	Hi people, I am a hobbyist. I have never travelled v much domestically preferring to go abroad as it got more to offer in terms of a culture shock. One thing NZ has is great landscapes. Those postcard shots if you know what I mean. Probably from the West of Christchurch (West Coast side) and down to say Queenstown and in the centre North Island. Thanks. Nomad, Do you use any specialist photography software like Adobe Light Room and if so what do you think of it?	vitalstatistix (9182)
640526	2008-02-16 02:30:00	Thanks for the help .. I think what may be more practical is to visit the national parks individually - fiordland looks nice and maybe some few areas of visit like the sounds, te anau, tekapo etc .. I use Nikon Capture as a RAW converter software, being a Nikon digital SLR (and film SLR) user. With an interest going to medium and large format. I also use Photoshop CS2 but not CS3 and Lightroom. Lightroom is a v good organiser. For most people they should be most comfortable with it cos it is the most user friendly software. Technically Lightroom is not that capable as more specialist software. LR is only version 1.0. Or the revision of 1.3 as it stands now. It does love RAM .. so you need probably 2GB or 4GB. These type of database softwares do not like it if you rename and copy and move files on your hard drive. Because there will be a mismatch and LR does not like it. One time I was organising the files and I unregistered a folder off LR and then registered it back on .. immediately I lost all my keywords for that set. LR is great as a one software - it downloads files, it renames them using a custom template if you wish and attach macro editing if you wish etc. It can edit and it can print and create web gallery, or email or slideshow (including music). A well renown author and photoshop seminar evangelist Scott Kelby does all his printing in LR even when he was edited the image using other software like Photoshop. Cos LR is so easy to print, you can select like 36 shots and say print to one "A4" and hit "high sharpening" and say "360dpi" and say "turn off color management in printer driver" but in LR "attach color management for your paper and printer type" and hit print .. and it just does this thing. An A4 comes out with 36 thumbprints. Equally you can print 2x A4 on A3 paper or 4x slightly smaller 6x4 on an A4 paper. Keywords I like cos, you can select multiple files and keyword them. You can also go via the panel of all keywords and rename that keyword (which all pictures attached to that will auto be renamed), or you can choose that keyword and show me all pictures of that. You can provide more filtering options say filter by date and/or filter by METADATA ie., camera type was used, what lens was used, what aperture, shutter, ISO, what format. LR uses the same structure as your hard drive in otherwords, if you have one HDD for your pix .. and you have 2 folders, in LR the folder structure will also be 2 folders. You can also sync your folder as well. If you only have one HDD and you have your own files and other stuff that is not photography. You can just select those 2 folders into lightroom and it will only display those. The "find" feature is also v useful. For instance I keyword my images individually as I can or v similar pix I select many and do it. Anyway, if I type "clocktower" all the pix will pop up. If I say filter by date ..again it fill filter them. I can also say "clocktower london" and it will display only those in london - provided of course I keyworded the images London as well. I use Nikon Capture as my preferred RAW converter. I use Photoshop cos I find the dust tool or clone tool easier to use. PS also has more methods of sharpening and plugins and stuff and fancy stuff like perspective control and layers. I don't resize in PS .. cos I just leave LR to do it. Thing to keep in mind is that LR and PS understand each other. If I use Nikon software, I cannot right click and say edit in Capture and when I finish editing it won't sync my keywords, I need to do it manually. If I use LR and PS. In LR I can browse my images, and say that looks nice, I can edit in LR and then say right click "edit in PS" - the RAW converter won't open it will go straight into the main PS software, now I edit in PS and I hit save, it will automatically name the file for me so its consistent. If I happen to use keywords and color labels in LR .. when I save the file in PS .. this will be automatically duplicated and it matches. For the saving file thingy, if the filename was 2007_12_25-89.nef (nikon raw file). The file it may give me to save is 2007_12_25-89.tif. I can of course change the filename if I wish at the save dialog box and still it will auto match up the color coding and the keywords. I like it so much I scan my film in low reso 1034x768 into LR so I can preview my film and when I like I can take them out again and scan them at a much higher reso.	Nomad (952)
640527	2008-02-16 02:40:00	If you want in LR.. you can move files .. you can rename the folders etc .. this will be auto matched via "My Computer". Each time LR starts up .. it ask you to backup your database. To backup whole thing you backup the database file and also the individual photos that you have. It also works alongside with Photshop Elements I think. There is a full featured 30 day trial online. It does have a limit of 10,000 pixels width .. so if you do super wide pano's it will work with LR .. it won't even allow you to import into LR. When you are downloading files .. it can look for duplicates and not download those files. But be careful this only works if you are dealing with the v same things. Like if you forgot to wipe your memory card and just shoot and now redownload them .. this is when it works and can check your duplicates from the prev time. If you had a load of mixed up files .. and diff edit versions, diff formats .. it may not pick them up. A useful thing is that when you import them in .. you can just import in (if they are already in the correct folder) and then it may rename them ... or you can ask it to move/copy import say from a memory card. You can also move/copy to the computer and also save another copy into my external HDD. It has a "collection feature". This allows you to say, copy the pix into this folder say today's print job or this month's club's submission pix. All you do is drag and drop it there. So in the future you don't need to dig via your images to get them or go via so many folders or diff search threads. Whatever changes you do there will be matched up with the original files ie., if you keyword them or color code them or edit them ... it will be matched. If you delete this collection .. the original files will be still have those things. Not sure on the editing but the keywords yup .... Oh yeah LR is non destructive. Unlike Photoshop I think, PS tend to open up in ACR raw converter and then into PS itself and it saves a copy and its altered. With LR and others like Nikon Capture and likely Apple Aperture and others, if you did all these edits 5 yr ago. If you don't like them at all .. you just hit RESET and its back to day 1. You can also go via the history panel and go via it individually.	Nomad (952)
640528	2008-02-16 03:39:00	Thanks for the info. Adobe Light Room has received some good reviews. Aperture has just been updated to v2 with a 30 day trial download offer.	vitalstatistix (9182)
640529	2008-02-16 22:00:00	Just out of interest been surfing the DOC website .. it list the recommended equip. It does not mention a tent for people unless you camp. Generally people who do these hikes, walks, do they carry a tent if they intend to use the huts? Plus, when they list the hours of walks - of how long it takes - is that a conservative figure?	Nomad (952)
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