10 hours in Iceland

hanasand

Despot
Joined
Sep 27, 2004
Messages
1,300
Location
Stavanger, Norway
So, I was in Minneapolis / U.S the other day, and on my flight back home I was so
lucky to be stuck waiting in Iceland for about 10 hours. I didn't really take to many
pictures because I was more focused on soaking it all in. But at least I got a few shots
despite the heavy winds. We rented a Toyota Yaris and just went wherever the road
took us, not having a map or anything.

It was quite funny driving on the gravel roads near the mountains as the only
idiots in a small car. So... Check out some of the pics I managed to get.

(note: Iceland is the craziest looking place on earth, and I'm ashamed of myself
for not coming home with even better photo's, it's almost to beautiful. You don't know
where to point your camera)


An epic lighthouse:
b_343036.jpg




Toyota Yaris on a "beach" (with volcanic rocks):
this was really just a test to see how much information is actually stored
in the white/burnt out parts of a .NEF raw file.
b_343242.jpg


original (quite a lot it seems, but no color information was stored, so I sort
of ridiculously colorized it myself):
v_71889.jpg




Amazing landscape:
b_346445.jpg




Mountains:
fjellmedsno.jpg




Where's Waldo?
hvor_er_larsern_s.jpg




Some smelly hot springs:
DSC_0452.jpg




Maxing out in the Yaris... not:
DSC_0406.jpg




Standing in the middle of very hot prohibited area:
smokeboy2.jpg




At that beach again, check out the strange "sand":
beachboys2.jpg




No words necessary:
DSC_0465.jpg




Just outside the famous Blue Lagoon:
lagunestud.jpg
 
Awesome!

I've been seriously looking into going to Iceland next year, it looks gorgeous! I'd take thousands of photos I'm sure.
Certain episodes of Top Gear, plus that "Earth" programme on BBC1 at the moment (and a number of other things) have really made me want to visit.
I'm looking at going around September time next year, so I have enough daylight to take photos, but also the possibility of catching the Northern Lights!

It's a stunning looking place and your photos are very cool!
 
Amazing photos of an amazing scenery, definitely a "must visit once" place!
 
I really need to go to Iceland. Great photos!
 
Reminds me of Yellowstone. :eek:

big_blue.jpg


steaming_pools.jpg


[/hijack]
 
Thanks for the nice comments guys.

About going through the post-processing I really have trouble with doing that on
a late request like this because usually I just do everything i deem necessary (or more)
to a picture, basically just fiddling around for 15 minutes until I get what I want.

I guess I can do a step by step at some point with screenshots of the entire
process, but the thing is that the methods will be so different from picture
to picture. There's no "one way" to treat a pic, you just have to learn the
the capabilities of each tool (not that I use any brushes or blend-modes or anything).

I use a lot of area-based levels adjustment and split the image up in different
parts/layers if I need to make some drastical changes to one part of the picture.

And by the way, I really only spent some time on the three first ones, the rest I just threw in to show off Iceland, not my Photoshop knowledge, heh.

Okay, that was messy.
 
Wow, very nice pictures, especially the second pic, it's even better than the pics on their Yaris brochure.
 
hanasand, by area based levels adjustment, do you mean just selecting the region you want to change, then adjusting the levels, or is there some other tool in addition?

No, nothing else. You're onto it. Just try to point out seperate areas which are quite flat
in contrast ( a road, skies, face, jacket whatever), use some feather, and adjust
the levels until it's perfect. Do this properly to most parts of the picture individually and you'll
be likely to end up with something resembling a studio-shot.
 
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