XXX material, but safe for work

[Dark Anghell]

XXX Drive-In in Issaquah, WA is pretty famous for their burgers and is one of the favorite spots of all types of gear heads. Today was VW/Audi show/get together. The weather somewhat cooperated and gave me a few breaks in between the clouds to shoot a few pictures.

At first I was bummed out because most ended up being blurry thanks to below 100' speed (also was trying to keep ISO at 200 or less). But while trying to save them I found few cool ways to make the pictures pop. Most cars were selected and then Unsharpen mask was applied. Ground had it's brightness/contrast/saturation adjusted. Since I was shooting with my crappy 18-55mm kit lens, to get a nice blur I had to do it manually in photoshop.

So please let me know how most turned out. In the first picture I really regret not getting the whole front of the second car, to me it seems almost unfinished or half assed. But I do like how the red car turned out.

 

[Jaszek]

The blurred out background kind of came out fake

 

[adolan20]

#1 I like how the red turned out nice job
#2 The blue seems a bit overexposed but good composition
#3 This seems out of focus and the black seems dull
#4 My favorite one, it's a bit dark but that's what makes it great, the color on the car closest looks great.
#5 Just ordinary to me but the color came out well.

 

[Dark Anghell]

Thank you! Number 4 is also my favorite pic! I think Number 1 had a lot of potential. Number 3...should have used a tripod on that one

 

[adolan20]

Thank you! Number 4 is also my favorite pic! I think Number 1 had a lot of potential. Number 3...should have used a tripod on that one

I don't remember which shutter speed you used but it might have been too slow to handhold. That would explain your blur. But I could be wrong. I've always been taught never to use a shutter speed slower than the reciprocal of your focal length if you're hand holding. For example, if you shot at 100mm your shutter speed should be no slower than 1/100th. This is just a easy guideline, definitely not concrete.

 

[Dark Anghell]

^^^ Yeah on that one, I tried shooting the car from the other side, but the wheel angle was bad and the whole side was blown out by the sun from above and reflection from wet pavement. The shadow side required speed of 1/30th and I didn't have the tripod with me. Should have bumped up the ISO to probably about 800 or so.

 

[adolan20]

^^^ Yeah on that one, I tried shooting the car from the other side, but the wheel angle was bad and the whole side was blown out by the sun from above and reflection from wet pavement. The shadow side required speed of 1/30th and I didn't have the tripod with me. Should have bumped up the ISO to probably about 800 or so.

Yeah you definitely could of done that. Oh well, live and learn.

 

[FondestBianca]

I'm not enjoying the editing to be honest. I understand WHY you wanted to blur and reduce everything but the subject but in this particular venue I don't think it worked. Had it been a really clean or well balanced background or a fancy showroom then yes... but not in the given surroundings. Since there is so much going on the the background and having people and junk going on behind the cars I think you're better off actually trying to capture more of that so you can make the atmosphere of a meet-up clear. Otherwise they end up looking like a bunch of cars sitting in a grimey parking lot. Also, I wouldn't have included photo 3. It's pretty OOF and drags the rest of the bunch down.

On the other hand your composition is really pretty darn good. They are all a bit tight but, I can see that for the most part you have a grasp of how to shoot a car directionally. The wheel angles in the 3rd are throwing that one off but, aside from that they are all shot well (minus the tight crop).

These photos are making me miss driving my 4000 quattro. over 3/4 of a million miles and she's still going strong :thumbup:! I couldn't sell her when I bought a new car so I just loaned her out.

 

[chadsdphoto]

It seems I'm in the minority, but I rather like the background bluriness effect. Yes, it doesn't look real to those of us who know, but it puts the center of attention on the cars, which is the point. Those backgrounds are doing nothing to make the picture better or more interesting, so they might as well go fuzzy. I think it is a creative solution for the situation you had to work with.

Of course, I like shallow depth of field anyway, no matter how it's created.

 

[SrBiscuit]

The blurred out background kind of came out fake

agreed...especially since the backgrounds seen thru the window are in focus.

i do, however, like the overall 'gray' tone to the whole setting.
looks like it was on the verge of raining the whole time...and it looks good.:thumbup:

 

[boogschd]

they look digi-modded

i leik