Tbird portrait - critiques welcome

DJ-S1DJ-S1 Registered Users Posts: 2,303 Major grins
edited October 23, 2004 in Holy Macro
I'm thinking of making a print of this as a Christmas present for a friend of mine. He's spent a lot of time fixing up this Thunderbird. I'd appreciate your thoughts on it and any improvements I might try. TIA

10073461-L.jpg

Comments

  • BodwickBodwick Registered Users Posts: 396 Major grins
    edited October 19, 2004
    DJ-S1 wrote:
    I'm thinking of making a print of this as a Christmas present for a friend of mine. He's spent a lot of time fixing up this Thunderbird. I'd appreciate your thoughts on it and any improvements I might try.

    What about Photoshopping out the white parking lines......
    "The important thing is to just take the picture with the lens you have when the picture happens."
    Jerry Lodriguss - Sports Photographer

    Reporters sans frontières
  • DJ-S1DJ-S1 Registered Users Posts: 2,303 Major grins
    edited October 19, 2004
    Bodwick wrote:
    What about Photoshopping out the white parking lines......
    Okay. Seems a bit plain w/o them, but maybe they were distracting. What do you think?

    10075965-L.jpg

    Oops, missed one under the front tires, I'll get that next edit.
  • hutchmanhutchman Registered Users Posts: 255 Major grins
    edited October 19, 2004
    My $0.02 worth. This was kinda fun. I've been away for a while - SICK! Good to be back.


    10096709-M.jpg
    Thanks for the opportunity to play!

    Hutch
  • mercphotomercphoto Registered Users Posts: 4,550 Major grins
    edited October 19, 2004
    T-bird
    DJ-S1 wrote:
    I'm thinking of making a print of this as a Christmas present for a friend of mine. He's spent a lot of time fixing up this Thunderbird. I'd appreciate your thoughts on it and any improvements I might try.

    Very cool sky. Getting rid of the parking lines is a good move. Using a circular polarizer when shooting the shot can help with reflections off the glass and hood, bring out a bit more color from the paint. The sun was behind the car, so a bit of fill-flash can help as well.

    Nicely done.
    Bill Jurasz - Mercury Photography - Cedar Park, TX
    A former sports shooter
    Follow me at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/bjurasz/
    My Etsy store: https://www.etsy.com/shop/mercphoto?ref=hdr_shop_menu
  • DJ-S1DJ-S1 Registered Users Posts: 2,303 Major grins
    edited October 19, 2004
    Thanks for playing Hutch. I like it, but I haven't developed the eye for this kind of stuff yet. So lesse...I think you cropped the sky a bit, rotated it to make the bodyside molding horizontal, and pumped up the saturation on the car only? Anything I missed? headscratch.gif

    I was thinking of making a small (8x10) poster out of it; large black border, small dark red stroke around the image, and some dark red text at the bottom. Sort of like your recent truck work, only amateur-style! :D Any tips for making the text look good in photoshop, or is it a no-brainer?
  • DJ-S1DJ-S1 Registered Users Posts: 2,303 Major grins
    edited October 19, 2004
    mercphoto wrote:
    Very cool sky. Getting rid of the parking lines is a good move. Using a circular polarizer when shooting the shot can help with reflections off the glass and hood, bring out a bit more color from the paint. The sun was behind the car, so a bit of fill-flash can help as well.

    Nicely done.
    Thanks! This is a surprise gift, so I snuck these shots while he was working late so he wouldn't see me do it. Didn't even have a tripod with me. I should have used the flash; now that you mention it, it seems obvious but I'm still new to this stuff.

    As for the polarizer, I need to get an adapter for my S1 so I can use filters. Once I get the adapter a polarizer will definitely be my first purchase. I had one for my old 35mm Minolta and I miss using it with this new digital camera.

    Thanks for the great suggestions, that's very helpful. thumb.gif
  • hutchmanhutchman Registered Users Posts: 255 Major grins
    edited October 20, 2004
    I did not touch the saturation. I cropped and rotated the car. Set the black and white for color adjustment. Used the "cletus" method to lighten up the foreground and to slightly darken the dark clouds.

    Pretty quick and dirty. Again, thanks for the project.

    Hutch
  • DJ-S1DJ-S1 Registered Users Posts: 2,303 Major grins
    edited October 20, 2004
    hutchman wrote:
    I did not touch the saturation. I cropped and rotated the car. Set the black and white for color adjustment. Used the "cletus" method to lighten up the foreground and to slightly darken the dark clouds.

    Pretty quick and dirty. Again, thanks for the project.

    Hutch
    Oh, okay, so setting the black and white in the curves advustment is what made the car pop more. Cool, thanks for the tips Hutch. thumb.gif
  • lynnmalynnma Registered Users, Retired Mod Posts: 5,208 Major grins
    edited October 20, 2004
    hutchman wrote:
    My $0.02 worth. This was kinda fun. I've been away for a while - SICK! Good to be back.



    Thanks for the opportunity to play!

    Hutch
    Glad you're feeling better Hutch.. nice to have you back thumb.gif
    website
  • DJ-S1DJ-S1 Registered Users Posts: 2,303 Major grins
    edited October 22, 2004
    Semi-final...
    Okay, so here's what I have. I think I'm pretty happy with it, but I'd like your opinions. There's always room for improvement, I know.

    I decided not to rotate it like Hutch did, I liked it both ways but in the end decided to leave it angled. I did punch it up slightly, and I added a faint logo in the sky. Do you think that's too much?

    10224791-L.jpg
  • digismiledigismile Registered Users Posts: 955 Major grins
    edited October 22, 2004
    Looks GREAT on my screen thumb.gif . I definitely like the sky. The picture looks like it came straight out of an ad. Makes you want to go buy a car ...

    Brad




    DJ-S1 wrote:
    Okay, so here's what I have. I think I'm pretty happy with it, but I'd like your opinions. There's always room for improvement, I know.

    I decided not to rotate it like Hutch did, I liked it both ways but in the end decided to leave it angled. I did punch it up slightly, and I added a faint logo in the sky. Do you think that's too much?
    Brad

    www.digismile.ca
  • tmlphototmlphoto Registered Users Posts: 1,444 Major grins
    edited October 22, 2004
    digismile wrote:
    Looks GREAT on my screen thumb.gif . I definitely like the sky. The picture looks like it came straight out of an ad. Makes you want to go buy a car ...

    Brad

    Looks good to me too. I like the logo in the sky. "Print it!"
    Thomas :D

    TML Photography
    tmlphoto.com
  • DJ-S1DJ-S1 Registered Users Posts: 2,303 Major grins
    edited October 22, 2004
    Thanks Brad and Thomas, I think it came out pretty good. I've certainly learned a lot here on this board.

    I ordered an 8x10 glossy of it to see how it looks for real, I'm not sure I can print it much larger than that.
  • hutchmanhutchman Registered Users Posts: 255 Major grins
    edited October 23, 2004
    The bird in the sky is cool. Very subtle. I still like the car more horizontal, but I really like what you did for the sky.

    This is the kind of Christmas effort that any friend should really appreciate.

    Great job,

    Hutch
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