[PowerShiftz02GT]

The day was pretty crappy out. Cloudy day the whole day. As soon as we left, the "golden light" decided to peak out through the clouds. So pissed we missed it but I wasn't going to go back and re shoot everything. Tried to make the pictures look interesting in stead. Might be too much though...
Camera: Nikon D40
Lens: Sigma 70-200 F/2.8
Sigma 10-20mm
ADDED 4/25/2010! HDR: Still gotta decrease the noise.. and tint the front windows



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[PowerShiftz02GT]

More examples of the 2.8 lens with background separation (un-edited)




Should of used a faster shutter. it was freakin windy.

[6DXR]

Sweet shots dude!! I love GLI's too

[Rich J]

I really really like the first shot, looks great.

[Mattd76]

Nice shots, I really like the first one and the one of the dog.

[Zatrekaz]

Wow man, you have really gotten good at this.

Great pics... come do a really good shoot of mine

[Emay]

Power your way ahead of the curve. From an observer position only thing I can see trying to do is not catching reflections of the surroundings on the side your shooting. Something that a little cloning could fix. I'm a victim of the reflections all the time and it's the hardest part of the hobby to me. Pay so much attention to the composition, position of the car, wheels turned correctly, is the back ground too much or too little, am I metering well, what's the focal point etc. Darker color cars (blacks, deep blues, marroons) are prone to it, while silvers and whites are not.

Are you just vingetting these, or is that the wide showing part of the lens body at it's widest focal length?

[M.P. Cobra Fan]

Real nice pics man.

I really need to find someone who will take the time to let me practice shooting their car. I am sick of shooting my own. LOL.

[PowerShiftz02GT]

Originally Posted by M.P. Cobra Fan Real nice pics man. I really need to find someone who will take the time to let me practice shooting their car. I am sick of shooting my own. LOL.

Originally Posted by Emay Power your way ahead of the curve. From an observer position only thing I can see trying to do is not catching reflections of the surroundings on the side your shooting. Something that a little cloning could fix. I'm a victim of the reflections all the time and it's the hardest part of the hobby to me. Pay so much attention to the composition, position of the car, wheels turned correctly, is the back ground too much or too little, am I metering well, what's the focal point etc. Darker color cars (blacks, deep blues, marroons) are prone to it, while silvers and whites are not. Are you just vingetting these, or is that the wide showing part of the lens body at it's widest focal length?

Yeah, I found this car pretty hard to shoot, the lighting was just horrible. But yes, the reflections, I was planning on removing through photoshop for my Photoshop class. When I meter, I make sure the the vertical line is in the middle of the long horizontal line.. ( probably didn't explain that very well, hope you know what I mean). And yes, most of these pictures have Vignetting in them. My photo teacher told me to add that into my automobile pictures, so I thought I'd give it a whirl. Also what do you mean by the curve? Do you mean, highlights, shadows? I did boost the highlights quite a bit.

But Erin, what do you do when the lighting is bad? I tried to cover the bad lighting up with a lot of editing, black & Whites ect. The original files just look dull and I couldn't work with them. Do you ever have times like that? I know you keep your pictures pretty much little to no editing. I want my pictures to look like that. But my pictures don't come off the camera looking too good to me. I'm not sure if it is me or my D40



M.P I know what you mean haha. the funny thing is, I've asked maybe 8 people if I could practice on their cars for the last year, and 6 have canceled last minute on me pretty much 1 hour befor which is odd to me. Who the hell doesn't want pictures of their cars!?

[Emay]

When I meant your ahead of the curve, I meant you were progressing quicker than most. Your landing some stellar shots, even if you don't like the lighting.

Just so you know, often times a photographer looking for that stellar shot but netting crap light - will cancel their shoot. As annoying as it is, that's what's done when your looking for that natural sunlight golden glow with lots of color saturation. I run into the same problem you experienced all the time - it sucks. You can combat it with a pair of sall off camera flashes and some umbrellas if your really getting into the car shoots. You'll have to get good with pulling flashes out of the reflections quite often on dark cars, because they are mirrors. The thing is, if you elminate the sky from the shot entirely, and light the auto yourself, you have total control of the situation. You clearly made it a point to not include the sky already in a bunch of them because you knew it was unappealing. So you would do the same, and light it yourself.. It's an option.

I honestly think you did very well with the gloomy skies. I'm curious as to why the teacher says vignette the auto shots. I'd rather put down a gradient mask on a seperate layer with a soft light fill personally. Might be french to everyone, but it's the best way to get back "some" saturation - not all, and the car becomes more the focal point. I think the teacher is sending you down the path of not having too busy of back grounds, but I'm guessing there. Vignettes do a good job of that.

For the picture of yours below, the silver wall over the car is really drawing attention because it's bright. With a gradient mask you can knock down it's power, and not net a vignette circle or oval. I'll throw a quick edit on there when I get home to show you. The rest of that photo is super stellar. I think you'll like the result. From there, you can use your imagination on the toolset..

I think I've asked, but what software are you editing with currently?

[93hatch]

Originally Posted by 6DXR Sweet shots dude!! I love GLI's too

Fuck yes dude, sexy ass cars

[Emay]

Here's an edit of that shot Joe - things to point out to your eye's

1. Notice the gradient overlay allows the highlights through in a black and white
2. In turn it brings some texture to the blacks/darks
3. The original dark bottom half of the picture is untouched I kept the mask in the brightest section of the photo.
4. I cloned out the damaged area above the car on the building..

Original:

Edit:

[Lefty]

Must get 70-200 lens

[Emay]

Joe - I took a quick crack at this one - You mind was set on some golden hour light, you didn't get it, but you did get what was still an interesting sky. This edit won't do any justice off a jpeg copy, but it's an example of what you could do in software or in the field with 2 exposures.

I cropped the sky with the selection tool, put a gradient on it to draw out some contrast again. then bumped the exposure on the remainder of the shot (not the sky). You had some nice brown towns in the building on the right, just slightly dim.

If I were to do it in the field, I meter the sky, take a shot, meter the car, take my second and merge em..

original:

edit:

[PowerShiftz02GT]

yeah, I tried to keep the sky out, and when I left it in, I boosted the detail and lowered the exposure to bring back the detail and not have a washed out sky. I see what your saying. Flashes are so much money haha. How many do you use to light up a car?

I am using Lightroom 3 and 2. But 3 until I have to upgrade and then I use CS4 at school.


I see what you mean by the gradient mask. That adds a really nice touch.


Thanks for the advise, always appreciate it!

[PowerShiftz02GT]

Originally Posted by Emay Joe - I took a quick crack at this one - You mind was set on some golden hour light, you didn't get it, but you did get what was still an interesting sky. This edit won't do any justice off a jpeg copy, but it's an example of what you could do in software or in the field with 2 exposures. I cropped the sky with the selection tool, put a gradient on it to draw out some contrast again. then bumped the exposure on the remainder of the shot (not the sky). You had some nice brown towns in the building on the right, just slightly dim. If I were to do it in the field, I meter the sky, take a shot, meter the car, take my second and merge em.. original: ]

Yeah, I always wondered how people metered two things at once. Now i get it. two separate pictures haha, duhh. I'll have to try that as well next time. Makes sense.

[Emay]

It's cheating, but the technology makes it possible in those situations. Might as well use it. You can only take so many underexposure or silouette style shots right?

CS4 is what I used for those edits as well. Lightroom is more a dark room/ development tool, not really an editor. So if you try these things, at school it will have to be. Work flow can be cut down to just a few short minutes..

[Blutooth]

Originally Posted by Emay It's cheating, but the technology makes it possible in those situations. Might as well use it. You can only take so many underexposure or silouette style shots right? CS4 is what I used for those edits as well. Lightroom is more a dark room/ development tool, not really an editor. So if you try these things, at school it will have to be. Work flow can be cut down to just a few short minutes..

Shit, if there is anyone that knows how to make good use of his time, its this guy..... Good advice bud.