Discussion
nomoregravy said:
These photos are interesting, ive been looking at them since they went up because there is something about them which i just find not quite right, and Im shooting a csl soon, so its good to see your approach.
After a lot of consideration i think ive figured out what i dont like here. All of this is just my opinion but:
I dont think the location matches the car well. Id have gone for some urban/industrial stuff which i think would reinfoce the cars character.
As others have commented, at a glance it looks like any ordinary three series beemer. I think this is because you have shot the car from so low down the ground clearance is emphasised, which reduces the agressiveness of the stance in the photo.
Maybe taking some shots that lead the eye into the details would have helped reveal that its a csl not just any 3 series.
You say it only took 45 minutes, and the first one in particular looks rushed to me: if you had moved the car forward 5 feet you would have blocked off the puddle and the debris by the side of the road. (Obviously i cant tell if there is a wall just off the side of the frame). I guess I would have concentrated on getting 2/3 good shots.
Just some stuff to think about i guess.
Matt
Indeed; as I said I had little or no choice in terms of location - any time spent trying to find a good location would have been doubled in time travelling back leaving virtually no time to shoot. In the end I opted to shoot at the nearest possible location that that was passable in the knowledge that I'll be able to do a more considered shoot in a better location at some point in the future.
Personally I think the biggest issue is the light - with the car being black and the photo's taken around 3:30 in the afternoon it was very difficult to try and capture the cars undoubtedly imposing lines / appearance. The harsh light rather washed out the details.
With the first shot, there was an outhouse building to the right which would have compromised the composition for me. These shots were done very much "at the drop of a hat" and I think it show's, but nonetheless I'm still happy with one or two of the shots as well as having learned a little more than I knew before - so I'd have to consider it a success overall. I'd expect to do a "proper" shoot of the car sometime in the next 4-5 weeks so hopefully this'll prove just to be a warm up for the main event.
Blimey, this'll ↑ teach me not to post anything sub-standard 
Honestly can't see any huge latency issues between car & sky - don't really think a grad would have helped. Given that they were all shot RAW I could easily produce a dark exposure for the sky, but honestly don't think the images REALLY need it.... Oh well, hopefully the next lot will be a bit higher quality 
Honestly can't see any huge latency issues between car & sky - don't really think a grad would have helped. Given that they were all shot RAW I could easily produce a dark exposure for the sky, but honestly don't think the images REALLY need it.... Oh well, hopefully the next lot will be a bit higher quality dcw@pr said:
I'agree with Poah...they would have helping bring the car and the sky closer together tonally, reducing the contrast between the two, thus making it easier to look at. IMHO.
Martin.
PS - you can do it in PS as well
do you really thing TD wants to reduce the contrast in his photos???
next you'll be saying they are oversaturated
Nudge, nudge, wink, wink
(Good job I live a long way away
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