Why are there so few car photographs?
Discussion
Rogue86 said:
Encounter a lot of natural studios do you?
I'm only having fun. You did me a favour pointing out my post production shortcomings.
Sometimes when you look at an image for a long time it starts to look right when its not. In these cases I find it helpful to show an image to people I don't know to help put me back on track again. It can often be far more helpful than showing an image in my office which is full of 15 other full time professional photographers.
As I said, you did me a favour and I'm just having fun as posters look more like cut & pastes / fake, so much more than mine ... but I guess they were supposed to be and mine certainly wasn't.
Oh .. and you'd surprised at what I encounter at work.
Edited by TheBlondeFella on Tuesday 19th July 21:32
Edited by TheBlondeFella on Tuesday 19th July 22:53
TheBlondeFella said:
I'm only having fun.
You did me a favour pointing out my post production shortcomings.
Sometimes when you look at an image for a long time it starts to look right when its not. In these cases I find it helpful to show an image to people I don't know to help put me back on track again. It can often be far more helpful than showing an image in my office which is full of 15 other professional photographers.
As I said, you did me a favour and I'm just having fun as posters look more like cut & pastes / fake, so much more than mine ... but I guess they were supposed to be and mine certainly wasn't.
Oh .. and you'd surprised at what I encounter at work.
Its OK, you dont have to explain that you're joking - I know it's difficult to tell mood just from plain text but I'm not that precious!You did me a favour pointing out my post production shortcomings.
Sometimes when you look at an image for a long time it starts to look right when its not. In these cases I find it helpful to show an image to people I don't know to help put me back on track again. It can often be far more helpful than showing an image in my office which is full of 15 other professional photographers.
As I said, you did me a favour and I'm just having fun as posters look more like cut & pastes / fake, so much more than mine ... but I guess they were supposed to be and mine certainly wasn't.
Oh .. and you'd surprised at what I encounter at work.
Edited by TheBlondeFella on Tuesday 19th July 21:32
That advice there is spot on - one of the things I miss most about working as part of a good team is the honest advice of someone with no vested interest in what you're doing. When I first started my last job (which was predominantly all in-camera JPEG), the lad I worked under gave me the same advice - "its gash, the only reason you can't tell it's gash is because you've spent the last hour trying to make it look anything but gash". Best advice I think I've had in my whole career!
I spend a lot of time editing now because the constraints of my current job require it. My favourite shots in my portfolio though took almost no editing at all.
Rogue86 said:
Its OK, you dont have to explain that you're joking - I know it's difficult to tell mood just from plain text but I'm not that precious!
That advice there is spot on - one of the things I miss most about working as part of a good team is the honest advice of someone with no vested interest in what you're doing. When I first started my last job (which was predominantly all in-camera JPEG), the lad I worked under gave me the same advice - "its gash, the only reason you can't tell it's gash is because you've spent the last hour trying to make it look anything but gash". Best advice I think I've had in my whole career!
I spend a lot of time editing now because the constraints of my current job require it. My favourite shots in my portfolio though took almost no editing at all.
I had another go. Any better?That advice there is spot on - one of the things I miss most about working as part of a good team is the honest advice of someone with no vested interest in what you're doing. When I first started my last job (which was predominantly all in-camera JPEG), the lad I worked under gave me the same advice - "its gash, the only reason you can't tell it's gash is because you've spent the last hour trying to make it look anything but gash". Best advice I think I've had in my whole career!
I spend a lot of time editing now because the constraints of my current job require it. My favourite shots in my portfolio though took almost no editing at all.
DX7A3723 by Murray Aitken, on Flickr
DX7A3724 by Murray Aitken, on Flickr
DX7A4071 by Murray Aitken, on Flickr
DX7A4204-flame by Murray Aitken, on Flickr
DX7A3488 by Murray Aitken, on Flickr
DX7A3494 by Murray Aitken, on Flickr
DX7A3510 by Murray Aitken, on Flickr
DX7A3518 by Murray Aitken, on Flickr
DX7A3531 by Murray Aitken, on Flickr
DX7A3572 by Murray Aitken, on FlickrEdited by Blukoo on Monday 25th July 13:52
TheBlondeFella said:
Rogue86 said:
Its OK, you dont have to explain that you're joking - I know it's difficult to tell mood just from plain text but I'm not that precious!
That advice there is spot on - one of the things I miss most about working as part of a good team is the honest advice of someone with no vested interest in what you're doing. When I first started my last job (which was predominantly all in-camera JPEG), the lad I worked under gave me the same advice - "its gash, the only reason you can't tell it's gash is because you've spent the last hour trying to make it look anything but gash". Best advice I think I've had in my whole career!
I spend a lot of time editing now because the constraints of my current job require it. My favourite shots in my portfolio though took almost no editing at all.
I had another go. Any better?That advice there is spot on - one of the things I miss most about working as part of a good team is the honest advice of someone with no vested interest in what you're doing. When I first started my last job (which was predominantly all in-camera JPEG), the lad I worked under gave me the same advice - "its gash, the only reason you can't tell it's gash is because you've spent the last hour trying to make it look anything but gash". Best advice I think I've had in my whole career!
I spend a lot of time editing now because the constraints of my current job require it. My favourite shots in my portfolio though took almost no editing at all.
But, as you are asking no! I'm sure you have taken much better images.
TheBlondeFella said:
I had another go. Any better?
Sorry dude - completely missed this the first time round!I'm not sure - I think the darker shadows work a little better (ignoring the highlights you cleaned in the first post) but it still looks like a comp. I think it's for a couple of reasons, like the lack of tread-marks in the gravel and the balanced lighting under the dramatic sky. I think most of it is still to do with the shadow looking fake though.
I think it's technically a great shot but for some reason I'm still not a fan, there's something about it that I don't think works. I hope you don't take that the wrong way - it's clear that a lot of work has gone into it! Maybe it just needs an overall colour-grading and warming up a bit? Do you mind posting up a couple of the frames that went into it? Completely understand if you'd rather not. I just think this may be a post-production issue rather than the photography which is clearly well done.
--Edit--
I didn't feel my explanation was doing your work justice, so I hope you don't mind but I opened it in PS to have a play with it myself. I'm happy to remove this if you like, I just thought it would help.
I started with the above, so increased the shadow, darkened the blacks and brightened the colours (levels, dodge/burn). I then added a couple of complimentary grads (cyan/orange). If I'm honest, it still didn't look right and then it clicked - it's the DOF. Having everything in focus with composition like that looks out of place, especially the foreground rocks. Is it focus-stacked?
Anyway, here it is. Please bear in mind that this is a very rough, quick edit. I appreciate it's subjective so I'm not trying to say "you should do this", this is really just to illustrate my original reply on what I think would help it:
Edited by Rogue86 on Tuesday 26th July 09:53
Rogue86 said:
TheBlondeFella said:
I had another go. Any better?
Sorry dude - completely missed this the first time round!I'm not sure - I think the darker shadows work a little better (ignoring the highlights you cleaned in the first post) but it still looks like a comp. I think it's for a couple of reasons, like the lack of tread-marks in the gravel and the balanced lighting under the dramatic sky. I think most of it is still to do with the shadow looking fake though.
I think it's technically a great shot but for some reason I'm still not a fan, there's something about it that I don't think works. I hope you don't take that the wrong way - it's clear that a lot of work has gone into it! Maybe it just needs an overall colour-grading and warming up a bit? Do you mind posting up a couple of the frames that went into it? Completely understand if you'd rather not. I just think this may be a post-production issue rather than the photography which is clearly well done.
--Edit--
I didn't feel my explanation was doing your work justice, so I hope you don't mind but I opened it in PS to have a play with it myself. I'm happy to remove this if you like, I just thought it would help.
I started with the above, so increased the shadow, darkened the blacks and brightened the colours (levels, dodge/burn). I then added a couple of complimentary grads (cyan/orange). If I'm honest, it still didn't look right and then it clicked - it's the DOF. Having everything in focus with composition like that looks out of place, especially the foreground rocks. Is it focus-stacked?
Anyway, here it is. Please bear in mind that this is a very rough, quick edit. I appreciate it's subjective so I'm not trying to say "you should do this", this is really just to illustrate my original reply on what I think would help it:
Edited by Rogue86 on Tuesday 26th July 09:53
Ok ... here are copies direct form the RAW files.
As you can see the main shadow from the car is real
There weren't any tyre tracks in there gravel as it was very firm.
There's no focus stacking, all the images were shot at f11.
I used a circular polariser and a ND grad filter to balance the sky.
All constructive opinions are as always appreciated.
TheBlondeFella said:
All constructive opinions are as always appreciated.
Thanks for sharing the base layers, makes it clear that the post-production has been minimal and so not a processing issue. I still think it lies somewhere within the broad DoF that makes it look like a comp even though it clearly isnt. As above - as long as you're happy with it then that's all that matters!Working on the latest set of this car. This is a teaser frame that's almost straight from camera:
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