49.5

In December 2011, I had a chance to visit Glenorchy, Queenstown - NZ. This place is totally a paradise for outdoor photographers and travelers as easy to access and closeness to the pure nature. At the end of the road from Queenstown to Kinloch, there is an comfortable accommodation and we really felt in love with the ambience. Really recommend to stay here for two nights and you will never regret : )

In order to achieve this shot, I setup the camera on a sturdy Tripod--Manfrotto 055ProB--about 6-7 inches above water level. At noon, the bright light could ruin this shot; hence, Lee Big Stopper (10 Stops reduction) and CPL were used in order to blur water movement and made the scene dreamy look. During taking this shot, I carried a dry cloth and used it for cleaning my CPL filter from some small splashing water.

In post processing, I did not import photos to Nikon Capture NX, but Adobe Camera Raw instead. In ACR, I applied "Neutral" as a camera profile that gave me very natural and mild feeling in every pixels. This shot was taken based on "Expose to the Right (ETR)" concept; hence, I reduce its exposure in ACR about 1/2 stop. Vibrance and Saturation were set up at +10.

I almost finished processing this shot in ACR. However, some local tonality enhancement and sharpness were manipulated in Photoshop. I added "S" curve, +5 Shadows/Highlight, and +5 midtone brightness to this shot. In order to enhance its saturation, Nik filter collection--Color Efex Pro-- was used. With Brilliance/Warmth filter, I set up saturation +15% and Warmth +30%. Local details were enhanced by "Tonal Contrast Filter" by setting Hightlight +10, Midtone +35, Shadow +10, and Saturation +10.

Finally, I resize this shot from about 4,200px to 900px, then applied "Smart sharpen filter" with small effect.