Automobile Post Processing... Before & After

AaronLLockhart · Aug 13, 2012

Took this image last night while walking downtown. Before anyone says a thing, please understand the white balance is not off in the original photograph. Once again, it wasn't off. The lamp above, was a warm colored lamp. Literally... it was red/amber/orange to the naked eye. I simply corrected the color to make it look like it would under a white lamp. This was not shot in RAW, it is JPEG Fine.

Anyway, I wanted to post this to emphasize to other photographers the importance of cloning out the unwanted objects in a photograph, and that it can be done with almost zero resemblance that it was ever there in the first place.

After on the left... before on the right.

MLeeK · Aug 13, 2012

Nicely done, Aaron!

KmH · Aug 14, 2012

The edit looks good.
Another tactic for removing unwanted objects in a photo when possible, is to remove them pre process, rather than post process.
Not all cloning situations can be accomplished with equal ease.

The ambient light could have been corrected in the camera by changing the white balance setting, or by using gelled supplimental lighting.

Any editing done post process contributes to image degradation, even so called non-destructive parametric image editing.

AaronLLockhart · Aug 14, 2012

KmH said:
The edit looks good.
Another tactic for removing unwanted objects in a photo when possible, is to remove them pre process, rather than post process.
Not all cloning situations can be accomplished with equal ease.

The ambient light could have been corrected in the camera by changing the white balance setting, or by using gelled supplimental lighting.

Any editing done post process contributes to image degradation, even so called non-destructive parametric image editing.

Keith, I completely understand what you're saying, but it's next to impossible to move a vehicle that you don't know who owns it, you're in the downtown area of a city with the population of 1 million+, standing in a random parking lot, and just so happened to see a truck you wanted a picture of

As for the white balance, I couldn't get it corrected even with custom balancing. It's really difficult to do with sodium vapor lamps (they are naturally orange/amber). However, I'd be glad to take notes if someone can elaborate how to do this.