affinity photo Car Photography Noob

[DBoy]

I am new to photography and the entire post editing process all together.  There are a lot of flaws I'm sure but I really enjoy working with Affinity Photo and enjoy all of the work I have seen here thus far.  Please enjoy and let me know what could be addressed if you care to share:)

[GarryP]

Welcome to the forum DBoy.

I'm not a photographer and I don't do much "proper" image manipulation so I can't really comment on your techniques but I can give you my initial reactions to viewing the images.

In the order in which I can see the photos posted, top to bottom:
1. Nice subject but the "double sun" kind of spoils it a bit. Too much light, or too many points of focus? Also, and I don't know if it's because of the car's paint or effects used but there are areas that look odd. For instance, the lighter lines on the lower bumper and rear wheel arch are areas where it looks a bit "false/pixelated" but I can't explain why.
2. Don't have a problem with this one of the bike. I like the way the subject seems to be stationary and the background is moving. The image is a bit grainy - a bit "newspaper image" - but I quite like it that way. A surveillance photo perhaps?
3. Nothing to say about this one really. Maybe a bit bright on the left perhaps, or too dark on the right?
4. I like the grainy effect on this one. Dirty and rugged. It doesn't work well at full-size but it looks nice at smaller sizes.
5. The car on the right looks great - in the smaller size image, not so much at full-size - but there's something going on to the left that doesn't look correct to me. Couldn't say what it was though. Should it be more out-of-focus? I don't know.
6. Nice, but I have no thoughts either way. That's not particularly bad or good, it's just a nice photo.
7. Again, no specific issues.
8. There's a bit too much light and the chrome looks a bit "crazy" but nice enough overall. The colours really stand out.
9. Image is too small to say much but I think too many effects have been used. Post-apocalyptic on the left and too much "edge detection" on the right?
10. I think everything blends into everything else a bit too much on this engine shot. Nice reflections but I would have liked to see more definition.

Anyway, after all of that, please don't take too much of my comments to heart. Like I said at the start, I'm not a photographer and the few photos I take are all way worse than yours. My comments are simply those of someone who is seeing the images for the first time and giving their honest - very non-professional - opinion.

I would like to hear comments from some of the photography experts in the forum and see what they think. Whatever they say will most probably help me too, especially if they use the correct terms for things that I can search for.

[AndyPhotoSJ]

As someone who started in Photography back in 2004 I appreciate this work a lot, it reminds me so much of my days, on my SV650S traveling all over California. great stuff. if you are into cars or anything that goes VROOM I would go to your local track day and hook up with some photographers there. Plenty of time to learn new perspectives, and a great way to learn the best time of day to shoot some photos. 

 

Affinity photo is a great program I think you will enjoy it. Photography and Design can really inspire new techniques. 

 

Good luck to you! hope to see more work soon. 

[VectorVonDoom]

They look good but perhaps tone down the HDR? Not many use it that strong these days, when it first came out everyone would though. So for example the last one has turned in to a bit of a blur because of that. 

 

I've no problem with grainy black and white and I think that one would have looked worse in colour, the only thing might be the cropping. I don't know what they are but those two things behind the telegraph pole are a bit distracting especially the top one.

 

I'm not sure if the motion shots in general are meant to be blurry or you need to practice panning more, perhaps you're stopping panning as you press the shutter? You carry on panning as you do that if you want them sharp.

 

The couple near the bottom perhaps would have been better concentrating on one car. For example the red of the car behind the mg draws your eye to that, perhaps if you'd taken it a bit further to the left (and a bit lower) you could have got rid of it.

 

 

[DBoy]

Thanks to everyone for the responses and I will definitely take it all to heart and consideration in the future works.  I have been busy working on dropping the HDR (it was new to me so I went with it) and I've been working on my focus points and working on getting sharper images during my panning shots. So far so good and thanks again.

[Davideditblocks]

I'm an image editor helping car photographer in editing their photos.Your image editing is good but still need to retouch those photos.Let me know if you require any help in editing your photos.

[DBoy]

Update, I think after all the time learning, I have figured it out:) let me know what you think about my recent works if you get this.

[Wosven]

Really nice pics.

I'm just not sure about the red one. There's 3 disting parts that try to get each one our attention... the bricks wall, the car and the grainy asphalt... The car is so shiny it's slipery and I end up focusing on the asphalt... Perhaps if it was a little blured it would send back to the car.

On another image, I would say there's too many lights and the eye can't focus.

[Smee Again]

As someone who enjoys American Muscle cars as well as classics, I like these images. Some of the angles I would have shot differently, but overall I like your work.

Just a personal preference, I get thrown a curve when folks mute all the colors as was done in the last image. I would have cropped to a 1:3 ratio and made sure the colors came through.

What do I know? Not much.

 

 

[Smee Again]

16 hours ago, Wosven said:

I'm just not sure about the red one. There's 3 disting parts that try to get each one our attention... the bricks wall, the car and the grainy asphalt... The car is so shiny it's slipery and I end up focusing on the asphalt... Perhaps if it was a little blured it would send back to the car.

On another image, I would say there's too many lights and the eye can't focus.

Shiny is good in show cars, unless you're going for the "rat rod" look. But I do think I detect a little HDR look. Doesn't work for most car shoots IMO.

[AdamStanislav]

1 hour ago, Smee Again said:

I get thrown a curve when folks mute all the colors as was done in the last image.

Well, here are two quick LUTs I tried to unmute it. The first, Thunder1.cube, is way overboard, but it could be tamed by lowering its efficacy:

The second, Thunder2.cube, is the same but much less strong. More realistic, IMHO, but there still is a little haze left.

[Smee Again]

First of all, to the OP of this image . . . this is just OPINION. Just like belly buttons, everyone has one, and I am not telling you how to do anything.

Generally, show cars use bold (not garish) colors . . . in order to achieve the effect in his image most folks just kill the bottom of the curve as noted by the "curves layer" in this image posted below.

WARNING: Personal opinion follows! Read at your own risk . . .

The lack of the bottom in this image is like listening to a good song without the bass. There's something missing and it really takes away from the "carguy" vibe the OP is going for. Just my opinion, nothing personal.

Cars are the stars of the image . . . do what you want with the background, but the cars have to shine!

[AdamStanislav]

37 minutes ago, Smee Again said:

The lack of the bottom in this image is like listening to a good song without the bass.

Good point. Thunder3.cubeshould fix that.

[Smee Again]

@AdamStanislav Very nice work. 👍

[AdamStanislav]

And yes, I would crop it just as @Smee Again suggests. Mostly because the buildings are as much in sharp focus (looks like it was taken by a cell phone, not a real camera) as the cars. They detract from the cars. Try reshooting it with a much narrower depth of focus.

[DBoy]

On 8/10/2021 at 3:59 PM, Wosven said:

Really nice pics.

I'm just not sure about the red one. There's 3 disting parts that try to get each one our attention... the bricks wall, the car and the grainy asphalt... The car is so shiny it's slipery and I end up focusing on the asphalt... Perhaps if it was a little blured it would send back to the car.

On another image, I would say there's too many lights and the eye can't focus.

I agree with the red Chevy Coupe, this particular image was rendered as an HDR since a lot of my car fans like that sort of thing though I personally don't care for it.  I also agree about the distractions though we were in a tight space and all I could do was find a clean area with some leading lines.  Keep in mind, most of the car shots are captured within the moment and I have to really do my best with what's around me and the conditions of the day.   Thank you for the feedback and I will definitely take these into consideration when I'm capturing my next auto. 

[DBoy]

8 hours ago, Smee Again said:

As someone who enjoys American Muscle cars as well as classics, I like these images. Some of the angles I would have shot differently, but overall I like your work.

Just a personal preference, I get thrown a curve when folks mute all the colors as was done in the last image. I would have cropped to a 1:3 ratio and made sure the colors came through.

What do I know? Not much.

 

 

Well, your perspective it what you know:) I get what you're saying though. I will have to brag on the last one a bit because essentially it all comes down to the viewer and in this case, Adam Barry liked the image, he's the creative designer for the Camaro as shown here:)  I will try the cropping ration also, I typically use the full frame in body and just crop as my eye sees fit during editing.

[DBoy]

7 hours ago, AdamStanislav said:

Well, here are two quick LUTs I tried to unmute it. The first, Thunder1.cube, is way overboard, but it could be tamed by lowering its efficacy:

The second, Thunder2.cube, is the same but much less strong. More realistic, IMHO, but there still is a little haze left.

I used to never mute the colors and it seems that they end up looking over saturated to me personally so I make sure to keep the tones sort of just neutral now.  It probably also has to do with my body setup, I often create videos and always capture on a neutral white balance and so on.  Thank you for the feedback!

[DBoy]

7 hours ago, Smee Again said:

First of all, to the OP of this image . . . this is just OPINION. Just like belly buttons, everyone has one, and I am not telling you how to do anything.

Generally, show cars use bold (not garish) colors . . . in order to achieve the effect in his image most folks just kill the bottom of the curve as noted by the "curves layer" in this image posted below.

WARNING: Personal opinion follows! Read at your own risk . . .

The lack of the bottom in this image is like listening to a good song without the bass. There's something missing and it really takes away from the "carguy" vibe the OP is going for. Just my opinion, nothing personal.

Cars are the stars of the image . . . do what you want with the background, but the cars have to shine!

so to me, you crushed the blacks and now there's less details there.  I tried passing work similar to what you've done here over to some magazine editors and their response was basically the same, too rendered, not clean.  I guess that has caused me to change my output overtime.  I also have habits from my portraiture work that cross over into the auto stuff too.  Thanks again for the feedback, greatly appreciated.

[DBoy]

Feel free to play with this RAW file if you want.  I'm curious to see what everyone else will make of it:) It's the capture of the two Camaros with the cityscape background.  Please post it here so we can view it!

IMG_9764.CR3

[Smee Again]

5 hours ago, DBoy said:

so to me, you crushed the blacks and now there's less details there.  I tried passing work similar to what you've done here over to some magazine editors and their response was basically the same, too rendered, not clean.  I guess that has caused me to change my output overtime.  I also have habits from my portraiture work that cross over into the auto stuff too.  Thanks again for the feedback, greatly appreciated.

No, I didn't crush the blacks . . . that happened when the base was removed. Since black is the absence of color, removing the blacks removes detail.

Since one cannot add detail that has already been removed, I got as close to it as I could with what I had to work with.

Most times when I see these images they have been produced by removing through levels (the quick and dirty method). Any time you move the black level above about 8% you completely lose at least one of the zones that Ansel Adams and others found so necessary to achieve perfect (or as near as possible with what they had) images he is so famous for.

By compressing the color, you are the one removing details. However, that being said, if your customer likes images like that -- and pays for them -- then as I told one of my webdesign customers when he wanted me to remove someone from a group photo instead of re-shooting, "the customer's always right." Looks like crap, but as long as he pays who am I to criticize. On the other hand, those images just moved his site off my featured list on my company page.

First image has only 9 zones. You can't bring back what isn't there. Try if you wish. Second image is all 11 zones (0-10 for those not sure). You can never make first image match second in detail in black areas . . . or white areas (I chopped both ends - which seems to be so popular today.

Not some of my better work, but thought it would be a decent example to show what I"m talking about. (Toyota let me keep my rejects, and this one wasn't properly lit and had luminance noise as well as being shot with a Nikon 340L but works for what I was trying to show)

[Smee Again]

Quote

Feel free to play with this RAW file if you want.  I'm curious to see what everyone else will make of it:) It's the capture of the two Camaros with the cityscape background.  Please post it here so we can view it!

Not much time this evening, but here is my edit of your image. A bit too much sky reflection on the subjects . . . try a polarizing filter (around $25 @ B & H camera and video) which is what I used to use in the old film days.

Perhaps not to the tastes of your customer, but a quick and dirty mask and my daughter really loved the 4:1 crop on this. Don't know what's wrong with her, but she likes the new Camaros, but as I said everyone has their own bellybutton different from everyone else's. Myself, I would much rather a Hellcat Challenger or something like my old 1968 Road Runner. Modern Camaros remind me of a grinning possum, butt ugly -- again, my opinion.

Just a 63 year old man with waning eyesight.

See what you think. Nice image you took, but these are the changes I would make if I had taken it.

 

[Wosven]

7 hours ago, DBoy said:

 It's the capture of the two Camaros with the cityscape background.

I like the version of @AdamStanislav. And the original shot, that tell a story with those sleek and modern cars in from of building mixing past —bricks, decorations on the right building— and today's modernity —middle building.

The building verticals send to the black line of the cars.

 

To explain about the red car one, I'll give a B&W version showing why I found too much "white particles" making it difficult to read:

It makes it more a study about patterns, hightlights and reflections, making one forget the subject—the car—, so I would crop it or perhaps better (but no time for test), cut it to put it on a dark background:

[Smee Again]

6 hours ago, Wosven said:

I like the version of @AdamStanislav. And the original shot, that tell a story with those sleek and modern cars in from of building mixing past —bricks, decorations on the right building— and today's modernity —middle building.

The building verticals send to the black line of the cars.

 

To explain about the red car one, I'll give a B&W version showing why I found too much "white particles" making it difficult to read:

It makes it more a study about patterns, hightlights and reflections, making one forget the subject—the car—, so I would crop it or perhaps better (but no time for test), cut it to put it on a dark background:

As I said, and I'll repeat again: BELLYBUTTONS - everybody's got one

WARNING: PERSONAL OPINION FOLLOWS, READ AT YOUR OWN RISK!

In my opinion, the cars are an afterthought in the photo. They have been pushed aside when they should be the stars rather than being pushed down by 3 boring buildings (wonder how fast they go?) that likely are over half a century old and  definitely not very photogenic -- especially as composed (bellybuttons). To each his own.

As for the second image, the HDR effect (as I originally said) really detracts from the image. It also looks like there may be a bit of an "orton effect" added which totally blows the shiny parts out of the water and ruins the image.

 

 

[DBoy]

Thanks to all, I'm going to take this into consideration and see how it works out next round:) Thanks again for the insights!