My first transformation using Lightroom Demo

nicknackgtb

Hi Guys,

Looking for a bit of constructive criticism from these Images if you could help me out.

I'm using the Canon 30D with the regular 18-55 F/3.5-5.6 that I got with the camera. I am hoping to be able to take proper shoots soon but am looking to find out what Im doing wrong.

Here is the original image I worked with tonight, just a little messing around with Lightroom Demo.


Am I better to use a better exposure to start with?
Im trying to get as much clarity in the shot as soon as I start but wasn't able to achieve it I dont think. Is there anything I could have done instead?
The lighting in the place was tough anyway but I tried my best.


This is what it turned out like with a little messing around in the program.



What do you think??

I have then posted this picture up on another thread, I know its not the greatest photo mind you but I'm looking for clarity in photos that I cant seem to get. So is there any way that I may be able to get my pictures a little more clearer??



Any help is more than appreciated, and if anyone is ever around the North kildare area that would like to give me a few tips, I'd love to hear from you!!


Cheers

theboat

Just a thought (and I mean that, as I don't claim to know the first thing about car photography and am a complete beginner with lightroom), but I would suggest that, from an overall sense, you could maybe achieve more 'clarity' in the composition, rather than being overly worried about the image quality. What I mean is (and again, this is just my initial reaction to the shots you posted) that you could have tried to isolate the cars. For me, the backgrounds are too busy, and this is a bit distracting. The black car peeking out from behind the subject in the first photo is one example.
I really like the second shot (and the car seems sharp and clear to me) but again, if you want the photo to be really clear, I might be inclined to either crop tighter, or to shoot with a less distracting background.
Sorry if I've rambled a bit, and as I said, I'm nowhere near an expert, just my 2c.

Thecageyone

Nice clean up job, white balance and under exposure seemed to be your biggest problem to begin with.

I'd agree that the background should be plain as possible for a car shot. Against a wall or garage door, you can process the backing whatever way you want, but I'd say it should be darker than the vehicle itself. I'd try over exposing the whole shot a little, using the slider and live process view, judge what looks good - You could grab the adjustment brush in LR, set it to exposure and bring it down to -0.70+ and brush over the background, this will enhance the car more and make it stand out. Once you've carefully brushed around it, should be simple as the car has clean straight lines.


[edit] here's a quick example of what i mean:

Temp -20
Exp +0.69
Adjustment brush on all but the car, set to exposure @ -1.95

richardbradley

no expert either especially on car photography!

LR good for correcting the basics as you've done - not a chance of your camera getting the white balance or exposure spot on with such different light sources and contrast with bright and dark. Look to do the basics in LR and then get it into photoshop and have some fun - i couldn't resist - mainly did what the cagey one said - sorted the background and then made the car pop out of it - actually did this in elements - i've definitely over done it but you get the impression. (bit of a halo near the right front bonnet but forgive me it a two minute job!)

challengemaster

Sweet Christ on a bike :eek::eek::eek:


OP, avoid other cars in the frame - it'll make the one that is there stand out more. I did this in PS...



Toned down all the yellows, removed the pipe in the bg, brightened up the FMIC, sharpened, few other things

Diabhal_Glas

OP what is that hanging off of the rearview mirror of the white car, a bit distracting and IMO unsightly.
Did you position the cars? If you could avoid support pillars in line of the view of the car it would also help.
I like the second one and the symmetrical background behind it. Maybe you could have made it a bit out of focus or dropped the saturation/ darkened it post production. The standard kit lenses arent the sharpest and that 30D deserves at least a canon 17-85 efs when you decide to upgrade.

nicknackgtb

Thank you for all your replies guys,

The cars were not positioned properly, it was just in my car park and i suppose my idea was to try and be able to get the iso right for the type of lighting given! So thats the reason there are cars in the back ground, pillars etc!

From what Im getting, the exposure should be a little bit over exposed before bringing it to processing??

Also from the last poster, that lense you commented about, is that the IS one? like this one? http://www.the-digital-picture.com/Reviews/Canon-EF-S-17-85mm-f-4-5.6-IS-USM-Lens-Review.aspx

Cheers for your help guys, really helping alot.

charybdis

I agree that the image looks underexposed and poorly white balanced (it looks daylight balanced under tungsten light).

Again, I'm not really into this kind of photography, but I do think you could've chosen somewhere with more interesting light and a simpler background. A lot of what we see in photographs is perceptual as opposed to measured, a sharp photograph can look dull in certain conditions and a slightly mis-focused image can look plenty sharp in others; try to think about how every aspect of your image will appear perceptually as opposed to literally.

richardbradley wrote: »

LR good for correcting the basics as you've done - not a chance of your camera getting the white balance or exposure spot on with such different light sources and contrast with bright and dark.

Actually, it should be fairly easy to get the exposure and white balance correct. Understanding a little about exposure and metering will mean you can get a much better exposure no matter what the camera wants to do. Also, it looks like all the lights are tungsten (although I would've expected fluorescent) so setting the camera to tungsten balance would probably go a long way towards getting accurate colours.

Lightroom et al. are great tools for processing photographs, but they shouldn't be treated as crutches or used to fix things you should've got right at the time of exposure. Arguably, you don't need to get white balance correct at the time of exposure if you're capturing raw files, but you should really get the best exposure you can in-camera.

Seriously, forget about using Lightroom or whatever until you can use your camera properly. It won't be able to fix your images if they aren't pretty good coming out of the camera, and it certainly won't make a bad image good.

Diabhal_Glas wrote: »

The standard kit lenses arent the sharpest and that 30D deserves at least a canon 17-85 efs when you decide to upgrade.

Don't worry about the kit lens, it's plenty sharp when stopped down and I don't think another slow zoom lens would offer significantly better optical performance at similar apertures.

conkeroo

Agree with everyone so far. The main thing is isolating the main subject. I've done that by adding some selective blur, selective levels to darken the cluttered areas, selective sharpening to highlight the car and some selective desaturation to lessen the distraction of some areas like the ground, the light on the back wall and the rearview mirror adornment.

Cosmo K

I couldn't resist, here is my attempt:

magicbastarder

to echo what other people mentioned, you're not going to get a good photo out without a good photo in; your time would be better spent on choosing a better location (for reasons of lighting and composition) than playing around in LR.

magicbastarder

Diabhal_Glas wrote: »

The standard kit lenses arent the sharpest and that 30D deserves at least a canon 17-85 efs when you decide to upgrade.

i suspect most people would have a tough time telling the lenses apart (especially at the resolution here) when used at the same focal length and aperture.

edit: or what charybdis said.

Thecageyone

magicbastarder wrote: »

to echo what other people mentioned, you're not going to get a good photo out without a good photo in; your time would be better spent on choosing a better location (for reasons of lighting and composition) than playing around in LR.

I'd agree to an extent, not much you can do about the location/composition. But with programs like Lightroom you can very much improve what you have to begin with. Especially exposure/temperature/WB issues

nicknackgtb

@Charybdis, I think you may have hit the nail on the head for me and told me as it is!! I really am trying to get the sharpest picture I can possibly do, and you may be right with the tungsten, cause i remember changing it to fluerescent to try that out!

Looks like back to the drawing board!!!

Thecageyone

If you shot in RAW you can change the WB in lightroom.

Kintarō Hattori

conkeroo wrote: »

Agree with everyone so far. The main thing is isolating the main subject. I've done that by adding some selective blur, selective levels to darken the cluttered areas, selective sharpening to highlight the car and some selective desaturation to lessen the distraction of some areas like the ground, the light on the back wall and the rearview mirror adornment.

Damn I really like that one. As has been recommended so far OP, no matter how good programs such as Lightroom or Photoshop are there is no substitution for getting things right at the beginning. If you choose less distracting backgrounds and get your white balance correct you will be well on the road to producing some great images.

A little effort at the start reaps huge rewards at the end.

nicknackgtb

Kintarō Hattori wrote: »

Damn I really like that one. As has been recommended so far OP, no matter how good programs such as Lightroom or Photoshop are there is no substitution for getting things right at the beginning. If you choose less distracting backgrounds and get your white balance correct you will be well on the road to producing some great images.

A little effort at the start reaps huge rewards at the end.

cheers mate. I might try it again with the car over near the wall at the back next time and try the tungsten lighting, and try bring up the exposure a little bit and see what i get out of that. will keep you posted how i get on.

CabanSail

It is best to ask the owner before taking an image and re-editing it. The OP here does not seem to have a problem with those that have done so in this case, but generally it would be best to get permisission first.

nicknackgtb

CabanSail wrote: »

It is best to ask the owner before taking an image and re-editing it. The OP here does not seem to have a problem with those that have done in this case, but generally it would be best to get permisission first.

Im cool with this, its my own car and am looking fr advice so fire ahead whoever wants too. Cheers