Apr 16, 2012

Before and After Monday

I figured I would go ahead and do a Before and After on these while I can still remember what I did. All of these are HDRs, but in the interest of space I only posted the 0 EV images. I also did a -2 EV, and a +2 EV for each. On all of these shots the tonemapping process made the chrome look very grey and dull, so I went back and masked in the chrome from the +2 EV images. I also used Unsharp Mask on each since tonemapping also takes away some of the sharpness.

The After

The Before
Here, I duplicated the HDR image and applied a pretty dark vignette. Then I went back and masked out the parts of the car that had gotten darker, so that it just left the background being dark. I also increased the contrast quite a bit, and then did the same type of masking to really try and separate the car from the background. I desaturated the exit sign above the car since it was also red and right above the car. Also, if you notice on the yellow bottles on the shelf, there is a pink sticky note on one. I used the Clone tool to get rid of that. I also had to go in and desaturate some of the white reflections on the car. For some reason the tonemapping process gave them a blue tint.
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The After

The Before
For this one, I desaturated the background. I used the Magic Wand tool to select the red on the car. It did a pretty good job of getting most of it, but it also got the red of the beams of the garage, so I had to use the Pen tool to take those out. I then copied the car to another layer and desaturated the layer beneath. The chrome and headlight was still a little dark on this one, so I used the Dodge tool to brighten those a little.
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The After

The Before
First, I straightened and cropped this one. I wanted the very front of the car to stand out so I used the Pen tool to go around the whole care (I think I have carpal tunnel now). I copied it to a separate layer, and used a Gaussian Blur on the background. Then I went back and masked in the floor in the foreground so that it would be in focus since it's at about the same focal point as the front of the car. Then I went back and masked the windshield and part of the hood to give it a slight blur since it's at the focal point where things begin to get blurry. I then used the same vignette technique that I used on the first photo.

It wasn't the best setting for my first car shots, but I think they turned out ok considering.

6 comments:

  1. Lovely car, gorgeous pictures,great work, marvelous result !
    Best regards from France,

    Pierre

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  2. The "after" photos are really great this time! Looks like an advertisement from a magazine or something, you should use those shots! I am telling this even as a not-a-big-fan of HDR, but those are awesome! Btw - the car is so cool, I just saw one on the street 2 days ago (which is not very common here in Germany) but in black, all shiny, like brand new! Wow, still one of my favorite cars of all times! :)

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    Replies
    1. Wow, thanks! Yeah, I would love to do one like this of a black car. I also saw an airplane I think would look cool. I just have to figure out how to get in there to shoot it.

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  3. Great work, wonderful images!
    Thanks for taking the time, and ruining your wrist, for us. I do enjoy your before and afters!

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    Replies
    1. It's ok, I have another one. If I mess that one up I'll just use my feet.

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