10 replies to this topic

[razornole]

Hello all,

This has turned into quite the challenging project, but I'm rolling now. Not much data readily available in Lapland (or at least none that I could find).

This is the first of a series of maps to be printed in Elsevier's Geomorphology. Size is 5.5" x 5.5" obviously b/w.

It is still a draft, and I just noticed that I have a graticule label on the wrong side but I wanted to get this up for review before I quit for the night.

There will be a figure caption, and I am not sure of what it will say but something like study area in the Karkevagge Valley, Swedish Lapland.

I attempted to place visual hierarchy on Karkevagge and the physical geomorphology.

Programs: ArcMap, Illy, PS.

Comments always welcome,

kru

Attached Files

•  Karkevagge_Carto.jpg   591.43K   189 downloads

[Gretchen Peterson]

Wow. Nice map. It's a subtle oblique view, is that right? If so, what was your method for making it oblique?

Incidentally, I had just typed up something today saying that graticule lines should go behind the land masses. This map reminds me that that rule really depends on scale, as obviously in this case the graticule lines work quite nicely over the land masses.

[razornole]

Thanks for the comments.

No it is all planview. Maybe the fact that I am using a 290 aspect for my hillshade is causing confusion. I hope not, but that is why I post.

On general thematic maps I do put my landmasses above the graticules, but that is more to establish VH. On scientific maps the graticules need to be in lat/long (a universal language) and they should be on top of everything.

kru

[frax]

Nice, what data are you using for this! I spent a New Years' at the tourist station at Abisko a couple of years ago.

[razornole]

Nice, what data are you using for this! I spent a New Years' at the tourist station at Abisko a couple of years ago.

Hello Frax,

Data were a challenge for this project. In fact, you may notice that I don't have any flowline data. Couldn't find it. Same could be said about Abisko National Park and glacier data. I looked at almost every site I could find (even the site that you maintain). I've got bit and pieces from a lot of them. The DEM is ASTER v2 (found those links on CartoTalk).

kru

[DaveB]

Very nice! I can't really find anything to pick apart. Yeah, when most of the map is landmass putting the graticule underneath doesn't quite work, does it? The sun angle seems to work fine, with no elevation inversion for me.

[Charles Syrett]

Nicely done black and white work! Only a couple of small points:

1. The dashed line indicating the area of interest could bear a thicker line, and possibly longer dashes.

2. The scalebar is a little hard to read, especially the smaller ticks. I would make it bolder, and get rid of the 2.5 marker, which is a little confusing.

The relief is just right – the small details are visible, without compromising the larger landforms, which is exactly what you want on this map. Did you do anything unusual to create the relief, besides for the 290º angle? It almost looks as though you've combined a couple of different views, or maybe used a Lambertian Reflection setting. In any case, it works – no confusion here!

Charles Syrett
Map Graphics
http://www.mapgraphics.com

[razornole]

Nicely done black and white work! Only a couple of small points:

1. The dashed line indicating the area of interest could bear a thicker line, and possibly longer dashes.

2. The scalebar is a little hard to read, especially the smaller ticks. I would make it bolder, and get rid of the 2.5 marker, which is a little confusing.

The relief is just right – the small details are visible, without compromising the larger landforms, which is exactly what you want on this map. Did you do anything unusual to create the relief, besides for the 290º angle? It almost looks as though you've combined a couple of different views, or maybe used a Lambertian Reflection setting. In any case, it works – no confusion here!

Charles Syrett
Map Graphics
http://www.mapgraphics.com

Thanks for the comment all,

I have since moved the scale bar to the right corner, and agree with the 2.5. I will also change those ticks to .5 lineweight.

The relief was a labor of love. I have not been satisfied lately with my grey scale terrains. Too much medium grey/dark feel. This map it was even exacerbated with large water bodies. I just used a hillshade (but cleaned a lot of artifacts in PS) and then multiplied it with two different versions of a b/w dem. The second of which was almost completely blown out/white to lighten the overall terrain. Then it is just a matter of adjusting the transparencies and flattening.

I make it sound simple, but one of the adjustment layers in PS that I utilizes is the Curves and make adjustments to the individual channels. As I was taught one time at a photography seminar on PS: if Levels adjustment layer is an automatic Fiat, then Curves is a 6-speed Ferrari.

thanks again,
kru

[Charles Syrett]

The relief was a labor of love. I have not been satisfied lately with my grey scale terrains. Too much medium grey/dark feel. This map it was even exacerbated with large water bodies. I just used a hillshade (but cleaned a lot of artifacts in PS) and then multiplied it with two different versions of a b/w dem. The second of which was almost completely blown out/white to lighten the overall terrain. Then it is just a matter of adjusting the transparencies and flattening.

I make it sound simple, but one of the adjustment layers in PS that I utilizes is the Curves and make adjustments to the individual channels. As I was taught one time at a photography seminar on PS: if Levels adjustment layer is an automatic Fiat, then Curves is a 6-speed Ferrari.

To shift to another metaphor, I often liken this kind of relief work to cooking. You surround yourself with recipes, ingredients, and utensils, and then let your creativity rip. You may or may not have the presence of mind to record how you did it! But in the end, your new "recipe" may never work as well in any other situation....

Charles Syrett
Map Graphics
http://www.mapgraphics.com

[David Medeiros]

Very nice work. I agree with the comments on your releif, it looks great. I might have added a little more blur, or used a very small median filter to facet the releif a bit and reduce some of the grain in the surface... but that's purely personal asthetic, I think your vertsion works just fine and is probably more appropraite to a geomorphic map.

Strangely I see the same thing Gretchen did, it looks faintly oblique. It might be the aspect although I don't see any inversion. It could also be the graticule which seems to suggest an oblique lean to the image. I wonder if rotating to polar N at top of page would aleviate that?

What font is the LAPLAND label? Looks good. I like that it has a feeling of being printed on the map rather than type floating over the image.

[razornole]

Very nice work. I agree with the comments on your releif, it looks great. I might have added a little more blur, or used a very small median filter to facet the releif a bit and reduce some of the grain in the surface... but that's purely personal asthetic, I think your vertsion works just fine and is probably more appropraite to a geomorphic map.

Strangely I see the same thing Gretchen did, it looks faintly oblique. It might be the aspect although I don't see any inversion. It could also be the graticule which seems to suggest an oblique lean to the image. I wonder if rotating to polar N at top of page would aleviate that?

What font is the LAPLAND label? Looks good. I like that it has a feeling of being printed on the map rather than type floating over the image.

Sadly enough, the font is Times. Geomorphology limits fonts on graphics to Times, Arial, or Currier. However, it sure made it easy to select the fonts to use. I agree, I'll break a line before I add a halo to a font on a static planview map.

I could've rotated but it would've led to a lot more work. Right now it is oriented to the inset, and more importantly to my geology map, hydrology map, and my sample sites map which are all oriented to magnetic north (which were sketched/collected in the field). I guess that it just comes down to consistency.

kru