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 > >