mostly automotive - my photos

bazooka · Aug 4, 2010

I just spent the afternoon reading this entire thread. Incredible work. You're inspiring.

I know you won't give away your secrets and I understand and respect that, but I'd like to ask a question that maybe you'd be willing to answer, maybe not. In PP, could you estimate, on average, how much you do general edits to the entire shot such as adjusting levels for the entire shot, how much you use masking to localize adjustments to just a portion of the shot, and how much you just hand paint whatever it is... like dodge/burn... freestyle without masking? If you don't want to answer, no worries.

I understand the functionality of photoshop, but I don't understand how to use that functionality to make my shots really 'pop'... to transform the technical knowledge into pleasing artistry like you do. Some of your shots where you post different versions of the same shot give me a better idea of the original, which the really blows my mind how you can see what to do with a certain shot. It's really incredible. Any advice you could give would be appreciated, but I'm not looking to mimic your style. I suppose I'm just wondering how you happened to find yours?

mar1u5 · Aug 4, 2010

Thanks for looking, and I'm happy to hear you enjoyed it. As for editing, I have no set way to do everything. I "attack" each photo differently, so that's why there's (hopefully) some variety in how my shots look. And the few times people have asked me to reproduce "a look" from a previous picture, I've had problems reproducing my own stuff because I don't want to do the same thing over and over - so I tend not to think too much about what I've done to an image once it's finally complete.

As for "my look".. After having photographed for a few years, I started visualizing how I wanted my pictures to look. Not beeing happy with just reproducing reality, I started experimenting with photoshop to try and come as close as possible to how I imagined a photo could be. I'm still far away from beeing able to create the kind of photos I want, but atleast I feel now like I've passed the half way marker to getting there

5D MKII + 70-200 F2.8 IS II @ 200mm / F5.6 / ISO 400

bazooka · Aug 4, 2010

Thanks for the input. Here's my issue.... as I look through some of my pictures, there are several that I like once I've ran them through Adobe Raw and adjusted the levels and saturation to get a good looking histogram without crushing whites and blacks. But once I've done that, I look at the shot and I don't know what I can do to improve it with PP beyond the basic RAW adjustments. It's like a mental block from just not being experienced enough.

I've never shot cars but your work gave me lots of ideas if I ever did. I do mostly landscape and natural outdoors kind of stuff, so I enjoyed your non-car stuff more than anything actually. But except for some of your abstract skies that were mirrored, the PP you did didn't seem obvious to me. Like your meerkat above (guessing), it looks untouched to me. I'd be interested to see what you'd do with it if you decided to heavily process it like you did on many of your car shots. Or perhaps the subject matter doesn't lend itself to that? Just wondering why you chose the conservative route on that?

In any case, I'm definitely watching your thread and I really appreciate the little pieces of advice you gave here and there. I think the more stuff of yours I see, the more I will understand what possibilities there are.

edouble · Aug 4, 2010

mar1u5 is a pro at the top of his game. Look at his website. Never have I seen such a wonderful collection of photographs. I honestly don't think anybody on this forum can reproduce the work of art that he does.

georgeshoemoney · Aug 5, 2010

Very good mar1u5! Professional shots! Automobiles is your expertise.

mar1u5 · Aug 5, 2010

bazooka said:
But once I've done that, I look at the shot and I don't know what I can do to improve it with PP beyond the basic RAW adjustments. It's like a mental block from just not being experienced enough.

For years I was exactly the same: adjusted color/light/contrast and then I was happy. But as time went on, I started doing more. And I never took any classes at this - I was just trying stuff out. If you're doing landscapes, I'd suggest looking into the IMAGE->ADJUSTMENTS->SELECTIVE COLOR tool. There's a lot that can be done with that.

Just have patience, it takes time to be efficient with photoshop. I've photographed for around 12 years, and when I started using photoshop it was with CS2 - so it's been a few years with frustration...

bazooka said:
But except for some of your abstract skies that were mirrored, the PP you did didn't seem obvious to me. Like your meerkat above (guessing), it looks untouched to me. I'd be interested to see what you'd do with it if you decided to heavily process it like you did on many of your car shots. Or perhaps the subject matter doesn't lend itself to that? Just wondering why you chose the conservative route on that?

It's good to hear that my stuff looks like it might have been a really good photograph with not that much PP work, because that means I've done some good PP work

I always shoot raw, so straight out of the camera my pictures are exactly the same dull uninspiring stuff everyone else gets out of their camera

There's not a lof things done to the image, and it only took about 20 minutes or so to do. That's where the experience comes into play: after having done xxx number of images and used about every tool PS has to offer, I know which ones to use and how to combine them to create that image. And why I didn't go all PP crazy on it: the photo didn't need it.

bazooka said:
In any case, I'm definitely watching your thread and I really appreciate the little pieces of advice you gave here and there. I think the more stuff of yours I see, the more I will understand what possibilities there are.

I appriciate the feedback. Reading what people have to say about the images is the only way I know if I'm on the right track, or if I'm just way off.

mar1u5 · Aug 5, 2010

edouble said:
mar1u5 is a pro at the top of his game. Look at his website. Never have I seen such a wonderful collection of photographs. I honestly don't think anybody on this forum can reproduce the work of art that he does.

That's giving me waaay too much credit, but I'm glad you enjoy my work

georgeshoemoney said:
Very good mar1u5! Professional shots! Automobiles is your expertise.

Thank you.

bazooka · Aug 5, 2010

Judging only from what I've seen, I agree with edouble... there is a lot of talk here on the forums but hardly anyone actually posts anything good, and certainly not in high quantity. This thread of yours is chocked full of win.

Last night, feeling inspired by your work, I went back and did some edits on a few shots from a recent vacation. Nothing mind-blowing, but I was actually happy with how some of it turned out.

mar1u5 · Aug 6, 2010

Guess I shouldn't argue with people who like my work, and instead just say thank you

5D MKII + 35mm f1.4

magan123 · Aug 7, 2010

very nice post keep it up.......!!!!:thumbup:

austriker · Aug 8, 2010

amazing mar1u5! Thanks for this awesome thread which I always love to return to. I actually found a mustang convention yesterday and cant wait to have some time to edit them- just by looking through your car photos I already feel like my compositions have improved..

I do have a 2 questions:
Would you highly recommend raw over jpg? I have noticed a little difference but I suppose with my images right now its not all that necessary and plus I just dont have the space on my computer.

Also for the shot of the canon gear, how did you make it so crisp and blow out the background? I am assuming it was a psuedo-studio shot with lighting and stuff. I tried a little bit of this with some ebay items but could never get it right. Of course all i was using was a sb-600 with my d300 and a white posterboard..

Also great work on the plane shots- it is great to mix it up and they are sooo good too!

SensePhoto · Aug 9, 2010

mar1u5 said:
5D MKII + 35mm F1.4 @ F1.4 / ISO 1000 (!)

100% crop straight out of the camera:

Your work is amazing, God i wish we were neighbors and i could spend days watching you edit those and learn lol, especially cars because that what I'm into shooting. This is prob my best so far and its crap comparing to yours

mar1u5 · Aug 10, 2010

MAGAN123: Thank you, I'll try

AUSTRIKER: RAW gives you the possibility to easily adjust the white balance (which all cameras struggle with) and to adjust the exposure. So if you nail the white balance and exposure every time, you might not be too interrested in RAW - but if you're like me, and miss plent-o-times, you might want to shoot raw

What I also saw with the D300 was that the RAW files were sharper than the JPEG's. You can set the camera to sharpen your images, but that's a bad choice. You're always going to get better results if sharpening is the last thing you do, after you've resized the images to whatever resolution you're going to use them in.

For the canon gear I flipped a foam mattress upside down, used available light and over exposed the mattress a bit. Nothing fancy (it never is with me

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COLLDFIRE: Thanks. I wouldn't share my editing even with my girlfriend, so I'm not sure moving next door to me would do you any good

And if you're not happy with what you manage now, just keep on shooting. No one is good straight away, and it takes years. Patience grasshopper, patience

One of the last things I tried with the canon gear (before having to return it) was some baby photos. Took the 85 over to a friends house and snapped a few of his kid. She's just laying on a blanket outside on a sunny day, in the shade (as said before: nothing is ever anything fancy with reflectors and such when it comes to my photos

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Visited a trackday on sunday, and used the D700 again. Felt weird after having used the 5D. But...oh my good how much sweeter the autofocus is on the D700. Will post pictures later on.