A penny for your thoughts?

[minicoop1985]

It's a 275 GTB4, my favorite car of all time, at a car show. Can you guys give me your thoughts on this one? How did I do? What can I do better? I was a little awestruck to think things through properly and still kinda of an with this shot, so your thoughts/opinions are most appreciated/helpful.

275 GTB4 by longm1985, on Flickr

Thanks, guys.

 

[hamlet]

Composition is pretty good. I think this edit makes your subject look better:

 

[minicoop1985]

Hmm... I like the idea with that, but I think the B&W is a little distracting (to me, at least). I did kill the saturation of the I think other Ferrari in the background and the hand, which makes a huge difference but isn't distracting.

 

[astroNikon]

Here's an idea for a drastic improvement

Have someone take a photo of you sitting in the driver's seat

I like he focus on the steering wheel's prancing horse
the other guy standing up front with a watch on doesn't help as you have noticed.

 

[Dinardy]

Looks pretty good to me! I was at a car show this weekend too.

 

[hamlet]

Yeah, i thought about maybe not going fully bw after the fact. But i closed the image and didn't wanna re-edit the whole thing. :mrgreen: I think it looks good.

 

[lambertpix]

I'm not knocked out. The black in the upper-left looks unnatural -- I'm guessing it's the underside of the bonnet, but my first thought was that it was just cut out in PS. I'd try knocking down highlights and recovering shadows a bit to bring the dynamic range in some. It's pretty "hot" right now.

In terms of composition, I'd have liked to see some of the iconic lines of that car. There's a page I follow on FB that does a "what's that Ferrari" quiz like once a week, and the 275 has a couple of detail areas that should be dead giveaways - the gills on either the front or rear fenders, for instance, or that magnificent rear fender arch. Maybe one of the front fenders including that gorgeous painted logo, if that was there on this car, too. This car should be so sexy it's NSFW. That's pretty hard to do with people crawling all over it, of course, so the idea to zero in on a detail shot is the right instinct, IMO.

The interior shot is good as part of a series for this car, but I'd like to see one or two of the other detail areas to set the mood a bit.

 

[minicoop1985]

Added some dynamic range like you mentioned, as well as killing saturation on that red area (I think another Ferrari) and the dude's arm. I have a couple other detail shots and I'll put them in here when I'm done (over 200 shots left for me to play with from that day... yikes!), but here's the update.

275 GTB4 Redux by longm1985, on Flickr

Is this a little better?

I got a good shot of one of the Borranis.

 

[lambertpix]

Better IMO - this seems more natural. I'm looking forward to seeing more!

 

[hamlet]

Looking much better.

 

[minicoop1985]

Thank you, guys. You both were a big help.

Here's the Borrani. I'm very saddened by the fact that all of the other shots had some fatal flaw beyond my fixing capabilities due to people and trees (shadows). The joys of car shows...

Borrani by longm1985, on Flickr

 

[lambertpix]

I saw this on on Flickr -- awesome close shot. I love the fact that there are details layered on details in here (the little logo on the hub, for instance, and the stamping on the knock-off). I love the red cast on the brake disk, too. I'm digging this one.