Tear me up CC

412 Burgh · Apr 3, 2011

Tear me up! First time shooting with my new Nikon D3100. It was an overcast day and I tried shooting my car outside by an old building. I didn't get more than 10 pictures because the cops showed up and told me I had to leave because I was trespassing lol. Anyways I edited one, but I know it's terrible. In my opinion it was too underexposed so I did some photoshopping. However, I know I need to learn SOO much, but i'm just getting into it for a hobby, but none the less I still want to learn the most I can. I shot in P and changed the settings around to something I thought would work. (which didn't )

1. Original

DSC_0127 by ZDiB, on Flickr

2. Edit

PT-Cruiser by ZDiB, on Flickr

3. Edited again

PT-Cruiser1 by ZDiB, on Flickr

EDIT: Equipment used:
Nikon D3100
Built In flash ( blahh)
AF-S Nikkor 18-105mm 1.3.5-5.6G ED Lens

RockstarPhotography · Apr 3, 2011

Tighter crop. Turn the front wheels. don't park so close to the building.

leaning photoshop takes time. Concentrate on lightroom or camera raw and learn that first. If you have itunes, look up kelby training in the podcast's. They have a few different podcast's on photoshop, lightroom, ect. and update them weekly (usually). you can download all the previous podcast's and should be a good start for you.

Good luck

412 Burgh · Apr 3, 2011

RockstarPhotography said:
Tighter crop. Turn the front wheels. don't park so close to the building.

leaning photoshop takes time. Concentrate on lightroom or camera raw and learn that first. If you have itunes, look up kelby training in the podcast's. They have a few different podcast's on photoshop, lightroom, ect. and update them weekly (usually). you can download all the previous podcast's and should be a good start for you.

Good luck

yeah, I didn't crop it at all probably a bad idea.. I'm pretty good with photoshop, like creating abstract art or stuff like that. However, editing photos with people or cars that are realistic isn't my specialty.

RockstarPhotography · Apr 3, 2011

That's where lightroom and camera raw come into play. They are geared toward photography, whereas photoshop is more of a tool for graphic design that happens to work great with photography.

412 Burgh · Apr 3, 2011

RockstarPhotography said:
That's where lightroom and camera raw come into play. They are geared toward photography, whereas photoshop is more of a tool for graphic design that happens to work great with photography.

I'll look into getting Lightroom from my high school as they should give me a free copy

I know Raw is a file type, but is that editing on my camera?

Davor · Apr 3, 2011

The colors of the car and background play well with each other, but i would have left the sky out and like Rockstar mentioned, turn wheels and pull the car away further from the structure.

RockstarPhotography · Apr 3, 2011

When you pull the car away from the building, shoot it with a larger zoom lens. it will help bring the background in closer but you can still obtain a good dof because the car is further away.

KmH · Apr 3, 2011

If you thought your original was under exposed, why did you make your edit even darker?

You were not close enough to the car, but the car was to close to the building.
One of the most common mistakes inexperienced car shooters make is essentially making the car a secondary or tertiary image element by including to much other distracting stuff in the photo (KISS).

The composition doesn't leave enough room in front of the car to give it enough space to imply movement. The car is essentially centered in the frame and that makes the photo feel very static, but cars move and aren't static.
Guidelines for Better Photographic Composition.

The light is very flat. It looks like it was over cast, and that can work to your advantage IF you use supplimental lighting to make the car 'pop' from the rest of the scene. A CPL filter and shooting at the right time of day goes a long way to helping control reflections in the car windows.

You don't allow editing of your photos, so I can't show you any examples of other editing outcomes.

I would have lit the inside of the car with a couple of radio triggered hot shoe flash units, rim lit the car with a couple more (including under the car), and would have probably used at least 3 more lights on 13 foot light stands with 60" umbrellas angled down.

Lightroom uses the same ACR 6 for editing, CS5 Camera Raw uses.

Lightroom is not a complete image editing solution, because it lacks many of the tools, functions, filters, and precision Photoshop has.

412 Burgh · Apr 3, 2011

KmH said:
If you thought your original was under exposed, why did you make your edit even darker?

You were not close enough to the car, but the car was to close to the building.
One of the most common mistakes inexperienced car shooters make is essentially making the car a secondary or tertiary image element by including to much other distracting stuff in the photo (KISS).

The composition doesn't leave enough room in front of the car to give it enough space to imply movement. The car is essentially centered in the frame and that makes the photo feel very static, but cars move and aren't static.
Guidelines for Better Photographic Composition.

The light is very flat. It looks like it was over cast, and that can work to your advantage IF you use supplimental lighting to make the car 'pop' from the rest of the scene. A CPL filter and shooting at the right time of day goes a long way to helping control reflections in the car windows.

You don't allow editing of your photos, so I can't show you any examples of other editing outcomes.

I would have lit the inside of the car with a couple of radio triggered hot shoe flash units, rim lit the car with a couple more (including under the car), and would have probably used at least 3 more lights on 13 foot light stands with 60" umbrellas angled down.

Lightroom uses the same ACR 6 for editing, CS5 Camera Raw uses.

Lightroom is not a complete image editing solution, because it lacks many of the tools, functions, filters, and precision Photoshop has.

You can edit my photos I don't mind.. I just used a Nikon D3100 and I'm new to photography so I don't have all the cool flashes, umbrellas, and lighting sources at my fingertips... (wish i did) but however if you would like to edit be my guest.. Thanks for the comments! Oh an the day was very overcast... and around 2:30 with no sun.. I did have a RocketFish UV polarizer on..

Bitter Jeweler · Apr 3, 2011

I :heart: Your Car!

molested_cow · Apr 3, 2011

I think it has potential with some dodge and burn. The sky is dead which doesn't help, so perhaps a tighter crop will do the trick.

My manager was on a work trip. The car rental company had a PT cruiser for him but he would rather downgrade to a Nissan Versa than to be seen in a PT. Little did he know that he spent the rest of the trip trying to find the silver Versa in the parking lot cus it just disappears in the sea of beige. I'm sure the PT will result in the opposite effect.

412 Burgh · Apr 3, 2011

Bitter Jeweler said:
I :heart: Your Car!

PT Gallery

There is a link to more photos... a while back some new stuff added to it, and older camera... so not best of quality

Rocan · Apr 3, 2011

1. the best image of them all id say.

2. what the F were you thinking? the car just melted into the background.

3. a little better, but off camera cropping = no no in my book.

want my honest opinion? bump contrast a bit on the original. next time get closer to the car; show depth in the image. it looks FLAT now. what were you thinking with that camera angle?! shoot from the viewpoint of an ant, or the viewpoint of a bird nextime. who wants to see a car at eye level? not me. spend a LOT of time practicing with photoshop or better yet; buy a copy of lightroom and learn to mess with your curves.

id love to have the original and your permission to edit your picture to show you what could be done with this image. for one, id use a gradient on the sky to bring back some detail if theres any in it.