seeking C&C- first edits from a big rig truck shoot

[zulu42]

These are the first edits from a shoot I did for some friends. These two brothers have classic trucks and wanted some shots on this historic bridge.
Lighting was plentiful but flat. I shot with a CPL to minimize glare off the shiny trucks.

In these edits I pushed some saturation, dehaze, sharpening, etc. more than I usually do. For this type of shot I think people are expecting a vibrant, polished look.

I can't re-shoot these, but I do have plenty of other different shots to play with.

Any feedback is appreciated. Thanks for looking!

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[Soocom1]

IMO, they look great.

The background does slightly clutter with the blue a bit, but the saturation of the trucks themselves allows them to pop out nicely.

The smoke effect is wonderful and fully black.

if there was any specific issue would be the contrast of the blue mountains.

 

[Dean_Gretsch]

That bridge looks like quite a scenic place. If it's close, I bet you use it often.

 

[zulu42]

IMO, they look great.

The background does slightly clutter with the blue a bit, but the saturation of the trucks themselves allows them to pop out nicely.

The smoke effect is wonderful and fully black.

if there was any specific issue would be the contrast of the blue mountains.

Thanks very much I appreciate the feedback!

That bridge looks like quite a scenic place. If it's close, I bet you use it often.

Although the location is only 1.5 hours from home, I've never been there until yesterday. A really neat place with great history... The Donner Party.
I have some shots of the bridge I will share when I get to them. Here is a cut and paste from the Nevada Geotourism site:


"The Donner Memorial Bridge, also referred to as the Rainbow Bridge, is a concrete arch span built during the 1920s near Donner Summit. The bridge was part of historic US Route 40, the primary east-west highway for motorists traveling between San Francisco, CA and Atlantic City, NJ until Interstate 80 was constructed in 1964. The bridge provides beautiful views of Donner Lake, the Town of Truckee and the surrounding area of Donner Summit. Many visitors stop to take pictures and admire the view. Rainbow Bridge has also been used in commercials and as a prop in movies, including "True Lies."

HISTORY:

Prior to construction of the Rainbow Bridge, old Highway 40 wound steeply down Donner Summit with grades as high as 18%. Automobiles were increasingly used in the area, and as the demand for better roads grew, the decision to create the bridge was made.

Rainbow Bridge was a common design for the 1920’s. Other bridges with similar designs were constructed at Yuba Gap, Big Sur, Redding, and Folsom. Rainbow was unique because of its placement: it was on a grade, and had a compound curve that had never been attempted before. The final 1925 construction report says, “The alignment consists of a series of compound curves; there being a 360 foot radius curve over the arch and a 145 ft radius over each approach span.”

The gravel and sand that made up the concrete for the bridge was mined at Donner Lake and mixed on site. The proposed cost for the bridge was $26,000, but it ended up costing $37,304.32 when it was completed in 1926, due to design changes and additions. The final cost gave the contractor a profit of about $1,319.

Decades of heavy use in a harsh climate caused the Rainbow Bridge to deteriorate. When I-80 was completed in 1964, Old 40 was given to Nevada County. By the early 1990s, Nevada County needed to take action to solve the deterioration. They considered tearing it down, but the Donner Summit community pushed to save the bridge. The community helped with fundraisers, letter writing, and attending hearings. A grant was written to the State of California by Steve Beucus, the Donner Summit Public Utility District general manager at that time. The grant was approved, and the County Board of Supervisors became interested in saving the Rainbow Bridge also. The County kicked in $1.6 million, and the bridge was restored in 1993. The replacement concrete was color matched so the rehabilitated bridge would look identical to the old. The only change was that the openings in the railings were made smaller so that people’s heads could not get stuck.

 

[smoke665]

I swore when that last truck left the yard with it's new owners, that I'd never look at a truck again, but I guess after 25 years in the business, there's no way of forgetting them. Started out with cabovers, Peterbuilt, KW, and Frieghtliner. I'd of finished up with them, except it got to the point that drivers wouldn't drive anything but conventional. Maintenance on the cabover was so much easier, and fuel mileage surprisingly wasn't that much lower. Overall the set looks good, one thing I might have done different is to do two shots of each one with a good DOF on the truck/trailer and one to nail the focus tack sharp on the Peterbuilt emblem then blend post. Old truckers truckers love their emblems. I'm not so sure you didn't shoot yourself in the foot with the CPL. In general, using a polarizer on clouds and skies will almost always increase contrast, but if the subject itself is highly relfective then a polarizer will instead likely decrease contrast. IMO bracketed photos, and a gradient filter, would have given more pop to the truck. Editing a low resolution JPEG isn't ideal, but I made a few adjustments to this one, to illustrate what I was talking about.

And this is as big as the DW will let me have now. LOL This was a 6 shot composit image as I recall, that allowed me to capture not only the reflections but the lighted marker lights.

 

[Derrel]

These look okay. The blue mountains look bad when seen small on my phone, but when seen full-sized, it just looks like haze.

The black smoke from the stacks adds a sense of realism and depth.

 

[Soocom1]

Got to agree with Darrel on this.

The background could be de-contrasted and the black smoke nails it!

 

[JonFZ300]

It looks like the first has a red cast to it. The second one has those blue mountains that are distracting. 3 is by far and away the best but needs something, not sure what. 4 and 5 don't do much for me I'm afraid and 5 looks like it has a bluish cast too.

 

[Dean_Gretsch]

We get a lot of Reefers at work, ( too many if you've ever tried loading fairly tall pallets double-stacked on a short, narrow trailer ), so I am not a fan. Not a fan of the subject, lol. Not critiquing your work

 

[smoke665]

too many if you've ever tried loading fairly tall pallets double-stacked on a short, narrow trailer

Didn't run any reefers, dry vans only. Even with 102" wide trailers there were a lot of loaders across the country that couldn't handle it, based on the plywood we constantly had to replace. A good day was when they only punctured the plywood lining and didn't go all the way through the side.

 

[Jeff15]

Some very nice truck shots, number four for me..........

 

[zulu42]

I swore when that last truck left the yard with it's new owners, that I'd never look at a truck again, but I guess after 25 years in the business, there's no way of forgetting them. Started out with cabovers, Peterbuilt, KW, and Frieghtliner. I'd of finished up with them, except it got to the point that drivers wouldn't drive anything but conventional. Maintenance on the cabover was so much easier, and fuel mileage surprisingly wasn't that much lower. Overall the set looks good, one thing I might have done different is to do two shots of each one with a good DOF on the truck/trailer and one to nail the focus tack sharp on the Peterbuilt emblem then blend post. Old truckers truckers love their emblems. I'm not so sure you didn't shoot yourself in the foot with the CPL. In general, using a polarizer on clouds and skies will almost always increase contrast, but if the subject itself is highly relfective then a polarizer will instead likely decrease contrast. IMO bracketed photos, and a gradient filter, would have given more pop to the truck. Editing a low resolution JPEG isn't ideal, but I made a few adjustments to this one, to illustrate what I was talking about.
View attachment 173872

And this is as big as the DW will let me have now. LOL This was a 6 shot composit image as I recall, that allowed me to capture not only the reflections but the lighted marker lights.
View attachment 173875

Thanks smoke. I appreciate the info and I like your edit. You might be right about the CPL. It also gave me some WB grief as @JonFZ300 noted some color issues.

These look okay. The blue mountains look bad when seen small on my phone, but when seen full-sized, it just looks like haze.

The black smoke from the stacks adds a sense of realism and depth.

Thank you for the comments Derrel. I'll take a look at these with some fresh eyeballs and try to make some improvements.

It looks like the first has a red cast to it. The second one has those blue mountains that are distracting. 3 is by far and away the best but needs something, not sure what. 4 and 5 don't do much for me I'm afraid and 5 looks like it has a bluish cast too.

Your comments are truly helpful I appreciate it.

Some very nice truck shots, number four for me..........

Thanks Jeff!

 

[smoke665]

@zulu42 another suggestion on work flow with multiple images, assuming you have LR. First set your exposure then set your WB. Select all images then use the sync button to set WB and exposure on all the same. As I continue to work an edit I will update all images with synch occasionally, checking the relevant boxes so that I maintain uniformity in the series. Only when I'm down to the final tweaks do I stop synching.

 

[zulu42]

Thanks, smoke, I actually did just that, so the WB was set the same in the whole set. However, I think maybe I did bump the temp up or down slightly on individual shots during editing.

Shot #2 of both trucks on the bridge is The Shot they wanted. I will try maybe dropping the saturation and contrast on those blue mountains to minimize the distraction.

 

[tirediron]

The blue one is really nice. What is it a ‘78? Always thought the 352 was a beautiful truck. KW won on the conventional with the W900; but Pete took it in the COE class. Great set.