[ratpack] Re: Car show photos
- From: "Dan Greenberg" <dan@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <ratpack@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 28 Oct 2010 10:15:53 -0600
Thank you Ray.
When the lighting is bright and harsh I do bracket a lot. I may not use
them all later, but if I need to at least I have them. I would rather take
up a lot of extra space on my memory cards/hard drive than find out later I
had a potentially great shot that is washed out or too dark on part of it
and not savable. I do use Photomatix and also various techniques and
filters such as Nik Color Efex, Viveza and Topaz Adjust and Detail.
Since I am trying to create fine art car images, I would rather have fewer
really nice images than cover the whole show in most cases. As we all
know, there are tons of great cars that you just cannot get a decent,
fixable picture of due to where its parked, amount of junk around, behind
and reflected in the car. So I skip them unless I think I will be able to
fix them later.
I will check out the Sto-Fen diffuser
Thanks,
Dan
From: ratpack-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:ratpack-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On
Behalf Of Ray The Rat
Sent: Wednesday, October 27, 2010 1:49 PM
To: ratpack@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [ratpack] Re: Car show photos
Beautiful photos, man. Do you bracket all of your shots?
Re: flash. I found that the Sto-Fen diffuser makes all the difference in
the world. And about replacing the sky...I do that a lot with blown-out
skies. My "poor man's HDR", although I use Photomatix from time to time.
I'll prolly use more of it on the show I'm working on.
Thanks for the good stuff. Raises the bar for me, but also gives me some
really helpful info.
r
On 10/27/2010 8:56 AM, Dan Greenberg wrote:
Hi Ray,
I am definitely interested in seeing more when you can.
A bunch of my HDR, etc. fixes for a car show with great cars and awful
lighting are viewable in this gallery
http://www.pbase.com/dlgphoto/kkoalss2010
The ones that are HDR say it in the exposure info under the picture. Pretty
much most of my shots from car shows this last summer were done like this.
I have been terribly unsuccessful getting show with flash - which means I
need to take more time experimenting and getting the technique down.
Great job of subbing in the sky on the Charger picture.
Dan
-----Original Message-----
From: ratpack-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:ratpack-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On
Behalf Of Ray The Rat
Sent: Wednesday, October 27, 2010 3:14 AM
To: ratpack@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [ratpack] Re: Car show photos
On 10/26/2010 6:02 PM, Dan Greenberg wrote:
Actually Ray they look pretty good all things considered.
Thank you. I think "all things considered" is the key phrase here.
Did you use flash on them?
Yes. 80 percent of 'em were shot from the shady side using a 430EX strobe
with a Sto-Fen diffuser. That seemed to be about the only way to combat the
mottling caused by the variegated light...by not shooting it.
Have you ever tried HDR for this?
I'm trying it on the next set of show photos. With Photomatix's ability to
tone-map single images and not bitch about a lotta stuff (not to mention
that it runs a lot faster than previous versions), it's made it possible to
use the tone compressor and get pretty good results. I'm adding a coupla
examples. This wasn't a bad example to start with, but it was pretty washed
out by the harsh backlight...even though I used an attached flash (I spose I
could have used a remote cable and held it above the car.) The first image
(028u) is just a crop and re-size. The 2nd is a crop and re-size after
running it thru Photomatix. The last one (02r8) is what the viewer will
have to put up with. It's an edited version of the Photomatix output.
I did the editing in Corel Paint Shop Pro, which I like better than PS CS5,
which I also own. I'm tryin to force myself to learn a little more every
day....but still... Anyway, on the final version, I changed the levels a
bit, removed the wires and pole (using the scratch remover and healing bush
tools), replaced the sky with a somewhat believable blue color and added a
sunburst over the flare just for the hell of it. It wasn't a quick edit,
but it wasn't the worst I've ever had to deal with, either.
I'm gonna try a couple more. If yer interested, lemme know and I'll send ya
the end results.
I have been doing quite a bit of it in these kind of situations with a
decent rate of success. The only problem is it does dramatically
increase work flow time. And it certainly doesn't work for extreme
situations.
Well, intense editing doesn't do much for the work flow wither it's HDR or
just "old-fashioned" contrast, levels, color-correction, etc, anyway.
Thanks for the note. Btw, I can't remember who sent this link, but it's a
pretty kool site, and I hope to be able to get thru the tutorial
eventually...in my spare time. :)
r
Dan
-----Original Message-----
From: ratpack-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:ratpack-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]
On
Behalf Of Ray The Rat
Sent: Tuesday, October 26, 2010 4:48 PM
To: undisclosed-recipients:
Subject: [ratpack] Car show photos
These photos are from the charity car show in Copperton, Ut on 9/26.
http://www.chevyasylum.com/cruisin/cruisin2010/20100926/Welcome.html
These were a bitch because of the variegated light through the trees and
the
backlighting from the sun low in the south. I tried to get shots of most
cars, front and rear. With some I succeeded (and more) and with others I
didn't/couldn't due to "circumstances beyond my control" (like cars packed
side-by-side with only a foot or so in between them or trees in the way,
etc.) but I didn't ignore anyone's car on purpose.
It was one of the harder shoots lately and the next one (car show in
American Fork, Ut) is a little more difficult cuz the sun's even lower on
the horizon.
r
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