Nexen Tires Nissan Silvia

Paddy@CIRL

I recently had the opportunity to shoot one of two Nexen Europe cars. The car in question is a 600+HP Nissan Silvia S15. The car had all the right features for a decent photoshoot; Bright colour, good shape, clean car, impressive spec list but yet I feel a bit 'meh' about the results. I've an idea in my head of how they should look and whilst it's close to what I imagined, it's not quite there. It's a tad frustrating and I feel it's down to the quality of my post work. Has anyone got any links / tips to improved post processing workflows / techniques ?

All C&C is very much welcome !

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More on my site : http://www.pmcgphotos.com/automotive/nexen-tires-1jz-s15-silvia.html

youllneverknow

they are sweet photos and sweet cars.

challengemaster

Grr...Jealousy is not the word paddy...

Not too sure about the purple in 1&2, having seen the cars, it just seems a little bit off...

3/4/5, nail on the head... as always

Nforce

Just my opinion...but I'd prefer the backgrounds in #1 and #2 to be darker, putting more emphasis on the car. As it stands the backgrounds appear overblown and a little distracting.

randylonghorn

youllneverknow wrote: »

they are sweet photos and sweet cars.

+1

They remembered the petrol that day then?

Borderfox

Can you explain what image you had in your head Paddy, might make it a bit easier to give ideas for PP

Crispin

Nforce wrote: »

Just my opinion...but I'd prefer the backgrounds in #1 and #2 to be darker, putting more emphasis on the car. As it stands the backgrounds appear overblown and a little distracting.

+ one to that. 5 is stunning!!!!!!!!!!!!

Can I ask what you did to the background in Number 3?

Number three is my favourite shot, by the way. It looks fantastic. I actually think they're all really good photographs. Not sure why you wouldn't be thrilled with them.

Paddy@CIRL

Borderfox wrote: »

Can you explain what image you had in your head Paddy, might make it a bit easier to give ideas for PP

Thanks Keith !

I suppose the closest I can think to what I want would be to Steve Demmitt's and Scott Dukes's early work ? Back in the Jtuned days ? Just simple, clean, sharp images. I don't expect to go from where I am to being the next Hauschulz and I don't want to imitate other people's style as I want to develop my own but I always think that my stuff is lacking that commercial polish maybe ?

Here are some images if you've never heard hell of these guy's before !

http://www.flickr.com/photos/scottdukes/3072424767/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/scottdukes/4665804692/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/scottdukes/456299007/in/set-1717410/

magicbastarder

speaking from a disinterested angle (i.e. i've no interest in drifting), i'd say the cars themselves are very fussy and garish looking, so don't make ideal subjects. the photos are not very relaxing to look at because of that.

DK32

In terms of PP, I'd like to see some of the images with all colour rather than a very bright and colourful car sitting in a black & white background.

I'm not a massive fan of drift cars but I must say they do have the look to back up the spec sheets. This is rare with a lot of these Japanese cars. Any I see out on the road often sound good & go well but in most cases they look totally bland and cheap.

I had a good look at your blog yesterday Paddy and I really like your stuff. The location also works well

m_s_nixon

Hey Paddy, I'm a big fan of your work, would you be able to give a brief run through on your set up and PP for no.3. It's a very nice image

challengemaster

magicbastarder wrote: »

speaking from a disinterested angle (i.e. i've no interest in drifting), i'd say the cars themselves are very fussy and garish looking, so don't make ideal subjects. the photos are not very relaxing to look at because of that.

Drift cars are meant to look agressive.... probably why

PCPhoto

only thing they are missing is semi-nudie female models ....great work Paddy (as usual) - wish I had your talent for photographing cars and technique for post processing.

I'm not a car fan by any means but the images you produce are always quality. (hope you charge good money for all the hard work)

Thecageyone

They look brilliant, only thing I can think of is you could tame the over-exposure [in the backing] down in Lightroom using the adjustment brush. The cars look fine from here.

Hope you don't mind me just trying it out? on #3 -


I used an adjustment brush in LR, -1.50 exposure, on everything but the car. The bumped the black levels up a little. I think it works, you may not

Borderfox

The pictures you have posted Paddy have quite a big light set-up to start off with even before you get to PP. I seen some car work in one of the pro mags I buy, I will see if I can dig it up and scan it.

Borderfox

Found and scanned, http://pix.ie/keithjack/album/379276/goto/1726828 feel free to download them. Hope it helps some, as regards the pp the shots you have put up as example have nearly an unprocessed look to them as if that is the way they came out of the camera (could be possible)

chicken_food

Its amazing the level of richness and detail in those photos. How can some ordinary photographer replicate these results? Or is that just asking too much. I know there is a reason these guys are pros. I'm jealous!!

mikeanywhere

I love what you do with the cars and I think the PP you do for these kinds of shoots is good - keep them coming!!

Paddy@CIRL

m_s_nixon wrote: »

Hey Paddy, I'm a big fan of your work, would you be able to give a brief run through on your set up and PP for no.3. It's a very nice image

I will of course

Thank you Keith, I remember reading that a long time ago but a refresher will do no harm.

I'll try do a rebuild of that image later and post the workflow here !

Brndn

Paddy, great work as usual .

I went to that workshop in Keith's article. Basically the big thing on the day was to make sure the reflections of the flashes went into dead areas on the cars i.e. when you look through the viewfinder the reflections of the flash heads are in the wheel wells, panels creases, mesh areas etc so that no hot spots are present in the finshed article.
In this one (below) i tried to get one flash in the headlight but one got a hotspot on the numberplate :mad:.
The tutor (Tim Wallace) made a big point of getting it right in camera and doing very little PP work after.

Paddy@CIRL

Just posted a thread in Digital Darkroom forum explaining the build of #3

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=66314177#post66314177

Thanks everyone for your feedback and replies, I really appreciate the friendly responses and helpful crit

hoganpoly

Paddy@CIRL wrote: »

Just posted a thread in Digital Darkroom forum explaining the build of #3

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=66314177#post66314177

Thanks everyone for your feedback and replies, I really appreciate the friendly responses and helpful crit

Thanks for explaining your pp ,now all I need is a nice motor to photograph:)
Great work paddy

m_s_nixon

hoganpoly wrote: »

Thanks for explaining your pp ,now all I need is a nice motor to photograph:)
Great work paddy

+1 cheers Paddy

For what it's worth I prefer the processing on the one in this thread, the building seems a bit blown out in the other one and the sky is a touch less dramatic. But great work and thanks for taking the time to explain. I've learned a good bit from that :pac: