New track day collages

mercphoto

I'm trying to expand my graphic design ability and I find that the longer I do it the better I get. Its a slow process but I enjoy it and I see some (slow) progress in my skills so I just keep at it. I have two new ideas I recently came up with that I'm looking for feedback on.

The first I call a Track Map collage. The track gave me permission to use their map as the background. I muted the background and added a textured overlay, I'm trying for a wrinkly antiquey look. I then grabbed photos of a car and inset them over the map near the location where the car was in that picture.


This idea came to me from an ad for a racing school I saw in the back of AutoWeek. It was a series of heavily cropped vertical orientations of cars. The ad itself looked cool but I don't think I have the right images to pull this type of thing off. In other words, I think I have to first shoot with this orientation/crop in mind, rather than "force" normal track day photographs into this concept:


This idea certainly isn't a new one, I've seen it done before, but I've never done it myself until now:


Thanks for C&C.

mercphoto

Got some great advice over on the APN forums on this one. I think this version is MUCH better:

GadgetRick

I like the last one the best. Interesting idea...

mercphoto

Fine tuning the concept:

mud390

I like the fine tuned design. I could see that being a very popular thing for track days, especially in a large version.

GadgetRick

I like the last design but maybe make the car in the background less noticeable. Sort of takes away from the other photos.

moose135

That's really nice work, Bill! A great concept, and a good job pulling it off. I really like the later versions, with the car photo in the background, but I tend to agree with Rick, perhaps the photo could be faded a bit more, it does distract a little from the collage photos. I like the second idea of your original post, with the vertical photos, but you're right, I think you need to shoot with that in mind rather than forcing shots into that layout. I'd love to see what you come up with if you give that another try.

mercphoto

moose135 wrote: »

That's really nice work, Bill! A great concept, and a good job pulling it off. I really like the later versions, with the car photo in the background, but I tend to agree with Rick, perhaps the photo could be faded a bit more, it does distract a little from the collage photos.

The version in post #2 is faded more, as suggested, but when I saw it in print it just had a washed out look to it. I didn't have any impact. And being such a large part of the overall image, if it was washed out it took its toll on the entire collage. This has a "pop art" effect on the background instead of black and white, and it has a very different feel as a result:


Also had a suggestion to make the track in the map white. I really like this, as it makes the map more of a design element, which was the entire point of this collage in the first place:

mercphoto

http://mercphoto.exposuremanager.com/g/track_map_collages

anvilimage

Great concept for packaging!

-joe

moose135

As I said, I really do like these, Bill, and yes, adding the white for the track diagram helps it pop, that is a great idea. I understand your final print will differ from what I'm seeing from a small image on my screen, so please don't take my comments as criticism of your efforts - it really is great work, and helps set the wheels in motion (pun intended) in my head as well!

mercphoto

No worries Moose!

mercphoto

A less controversial collage design.

moose135

I like it!

austinado16

I enjoy doing stuff like this, I like watching you progress through the different stages as you keep dialing it in. Sometimes I like to play with the idea of, "Okay, I've worn out this concept, what else can I do that's either completely different, completely "out there," or, pushes this concept to the edge. Sometimes it helps me to think in terms of, "What's the essence of this thing?" and/or "What's the emotion that this thing gives me?"

One thing I think of in motor sports is the unbelievable power that the vehicle exhudes/releases, etc. There's also the fantastic sound of screaming engines. Another thing that comes to mind is the 3 dimensional aspect of the sport, in that the cars and track are coming towards the view, and in a flash, they are gone.

So thinking outoud here, how can you make your posters have more depth? How can you make your posters give the feeling of power? What if you took that track map idea and laid it down to give a perspective feel, and the floated the photos using different sizes and shadow effect, to make them look like some were closer and some further away....just like the track they are on? And what about, instead of using the entire car as a background image, you give just a teaser.....just a super large, sexy partial view of one thing on the car, or one area of the car that IS the essence of that car. Something that says, "You wanna see the rest of this?" Maybe it's shots from the Pitts......a partial engine view, a badge/emblem, a mirror, an angled shot of the instruments, hands on a steering wheel, etc. Maybe even blur the entire car, so it's just about "speed" and let the other photos give up the details.

Just sort of brain storming here, but anyway, that's the way I'd try it. Might work, might not, might lead you to an entirely different idea that you'd not even thought of.

One more idea......I'd probably make the driver's name less important. I like the typography, it suits the speed/racing thing. I'd make the car and the feel most important and set the "label" off side, maybe giving it it's own banner across the bottom horizontally, or vertically up one side with the typography sideways.

Okay....one more thought. Watch the negative space (the space were there's nothing). Play with leaving less, and making the photos much larger.

mercphoto

Some good ideas there. Thanks.

This was one of my favorite shots I got of his car. Even though a lot of the car was cropped off (I was simply too close, I was zoomed fully out at 70mm) but the shot is super sharp and has tons of motion in it. Perhaps a good background image? And having different sized inset images is a good idea to play with.

mercphoto

austinado16 wrote: »

And what about, instead of using the entire car as a background image, you give just a teaser.....just a super large, sexy partial view of one thing on the car, or one area of the car that IS the essence of that car. Something that says, "You wanna see the rest of this?" Maybe it's shots from the Pitts......a partial engine view, a badge/emblem, a mirror, an angled shot of the instruments, hands on a steering wheel, etc. Maybe even blur the entire car, so it's just about "speed" and let the other photos give up the details.

Some of those ideas would be super cool if I had a commissioned photo session. For a track day they'd be hard and here's why. I can see an instrument cluster shot, especially with the tach needle way up, being a cool background for a collage. But how to get one of all the cars, and then pair the instrument cluster back to the car it came from after the event. Difficult. But, great idea for a commissioned session. Something to keep in mind for sure!

austinado16

Great shot of the 'vette...and that's what I mean about a partial. "We" immediatly know it's a 'vette, and the view of the driver-in-helmet and the blur, and the wheel spin, and "we" know it's RACING!! Now, like you say, if you had an opportinuty for a bunch of close up work, you could do an angled/close engine shot, something with a wheel and tire tread, instruments, some on-the-track cornering shots, and you'd have a pretty nice poster going.

I'm no pro, just brain storming with you, and it's fun to play around with stuff like this.

BTW, meant to comment before that your photography is fantastic. I've never shot racing, and I know it takes a huge amount of talent to get the panning down. You have it nailed, especially with how you're freezing the car, but still have a shutter speed that's slow enough to allow wheel spin.

mercphoto

Something completely different than what has been discussed so far. I still like the idea above but for some reason I can't make that turn into a great collage. What I really want to do with the above is get a dashboard shot with a tachometer as a background.

austinado16

See, that's what I mean. Sometimes you try something and it just doesn't "work." But you at least try it...and sometimes it'll send you in another direction to an idea you wouldn't have thought of. That's what's great about brain storming. You don't say no to any idea, you just blurt it out, maybe give it a try, and see where it takes you. Sort of a journey.

I'm liking the film strip idea alot, especially with the American flag background. It's getting some depth with the guy's name out front and the flag behind, and you've got nice use of the negative space. I might even increase the shadow effect on the film strip to float the strip more and create more depth.

So that poster leads me to another thought. Since film strips are usually bent, what would it look like if that had a slight wave to it, either up and down 2 dimensionally, or sort of front to back 3D-like, as if it was coming out of the poster? Donno, just thinking outloud.

Also like that you've dropped the race track idea. For some reason (IMO) that was really taking away from the importance of the car shots and it was giving a weird 1 dimensional affect to the poster. This latest one is very cool, and I can see it large and framed, and hanging in the guy's home or garage.

mercphoto

I've thought about the wave myself. I'm not entirely sure how to go about doing it though! I've seen a (rather cheap) Photoshop Action for building a wavy film strip. But I like the template I have now (seems much more realistic, I can have Fuji or Kodak branding, etc.). The action referred to is a rather bland, generic film strip. But, it can be wavy.

mercphoto

New twist on the idea:



Same as above, but adds a film strip of three smaller images on top:

austinado16

These are starting to look very professional, and I feel like you're really starting to hit it.

Steal a cockpit (instrument) view off the web somewhere and give it to me again with that as your background instead of the flag. And do the cockpit at an angle as if seen by looking in through the door window.

Nihilation

I have to chime in here because I did something similar after being inspired by a BFG magazine ad. Below is what I did several years back for my '03 350Z Nismo.

austinado16

Less is more.....I'm lovin' that!!!!

mercphoto

Nihilation wrote: »

I have to chime in here because I did something similar after being inspired by a BFG magazine ad. Below is what I did several years back for my '03 350Z Nismo.

Very cool!

mercphoto

Three slightly different takes on that theme. In each one the top image is slightly different:

Top image in pop art effect, opacity around 90%:


Top image in full color, but opacity at 95%:


Top image full color, 100% opaque:

austinado16

I like! Not sure I like the pop-art style, maybe because it's not transformed enough, and so it just looks like a bad photograph.

Wonder if there's a way you can provide more 3D seperation between the 2 images, for a little more pop. Maybe a lens flare effect of some sort? Or the monochrome thing that's been done in the Nissan photo?

mercphoto

Odd.... when Photoshop is saving my JPG it's disregarding the opacity setting on my layers, temporarily converting it to 100% opacity. Yikes! What's wrong? It does this if Flatten Image manually as well.

austinado16

Mmm...donno. I'm marginal/descent with PSE7, but haven't played with the real PS at all.

mercphoto