Well I got my Avenger F1000 suction cups and Manfrotto Super Clamps so I had to go and test them out on the neon. I decided to go ahead and show the world my new rig set-up and what I go through with the editing that is involved in making myself somewhat happy with my own photos. I can get a little obsessive with making everything just perfect. I guess thats not really a bad thing though.
Here is a picture of my current rig set-up…
This is the original image right out of the camera except for crop/resize/watermark…
Then I adjusted the brightness to darken just the background to make the car “pop” more and make it easier for me to drop in my sky later. I also used the clone stamp tool to edit out the suction cups and the reflections from the pole in the paint…
While in Ohio with my girlfriend visiting her family I took a picture of this amazing sunset…
This is the sky and background I decided to use for this rig shot. I pulled the rig shot on top of this image then used the history brush to bring the sky and background back. it took some tweaking to get everything positioned where i wanted it to be but the shot is really coming together now…
Now I needed to deal with the exposure of the car, the color and the distortion. I brightened the car up some, adjusted the color just a little to get rid of the cool blue color on the silver paint then used the lens correction filter to get rid of some of the “super wide angle” look. I also made some small correction to my background that I though looked better as well as getting rid of the orange in the sky behind the car where there was no sun…
Here I added some contrast that was needed and used the burn tool on places like the headlight, grill and side windows…
One more thing that bothered me was the windshield, its very blown out on one side. Luckily I took a few under exposed shots and i was able to pull the windshield from one of those….
After my layer via copy of the windshield i was able to use the history brush around it.
After all this I did all your basic stuff like noise reduction, sharpening and adjusting levels to make sure everything was the way i wanted it to be. Here is a before and after…
I hope you enjoyed watching the process I go through when I edit a rig shot of mine. Hopefully you learned something or just found it interesting. Thank you for reading my blog and dont forget to look for the full size shot of the finished product on my home page in the automotive gallery!
#1 by Erik on July 4th, 2009
Interesting setup. I like the post processing step by step you gave. Must take awhile to do.
#2 by Chad on July 4th, 2009
yeah i had about an hour and half in the post process of that shot. it is time consuming and you have to be pretty decent with the clone stamp tool but the end result it worth it for sure.
#3 by Clyde Hopper on July 4th, 2009
Chad, that was well done,the writing,photos,step by step details,I’m impressed,bravo
#4 by Chad on July 4th, 2009
thanks clyde!
i try to keep it interesting around here and actually do something with my blog =)
#5 by Sandra on July 13th, 2009
I’m very impressed! Fantastic finished product.
#6 by Joachim on July 16th, 2009
Nice write up!
I think the picture came out great!
#7 by Matt on August 1st, 2009
Wow Chad, You posted a few pics of your Blazer on a forum and I was perplexed as to how you got it looking like you were actually driving. I kept experimenting with photoshop and radial/motion blur but I could never figure out. Now I see you WERE ACTUALLY driving and it all makes sense.
Very impressive
-Matt
#8 by Chad on August 2nd, 2009
to me honest matt the car is only costing at a walking pace then i use a slow shutter speed to give the illusion the car is moving at 60+ MPH =)
#9 by RasharAnthony on January 28th, 2010
I’ve gone through about 4 pages of your blog entries, and have been stuck on your page for a SOLID 3 hrs.
I’ve been shooting people for quite some time, been doing photoshop for even longer, but I recently (Feb of last year) got into shooting cars.
I’ve found your blog helpful in many ways. It’s answered quite a few questions of mine, as well as given me a few ideas. I’ve recently acquired some flashes and haven’t quite gained the confidence to utilize them on my car yet, but after seeing some of your simple placements, when the weather clears up, I’m going to go at it full force.
There’s a lot of differences between shooting different types of subject matter as I’m sure you know. Post production techniques are also different. So it’s also good to see you share those as well.
When I find someone that has achieved a level of quality, and accolades (congrats on the features) and cares for their craft enough to post how-to’s and share knowlege with others that would use it properly, I have to extend a warm thank you.
Some of the things in your blog will save me months or years of experimentation.. I truly appreciate your time and expertise.
In the near future, I’ll be shooting more cars and as I get better know that it was from some of the tools I gained from your site.
Thanks again,
RashardAnthony
#10 by Chad on January 31st, 2010
thank you for the complements man. sharing and helping other photographers is as big a passion for me as photography itself. i wouldnt have progressed anywhere as fast as i have if it wasnt for the photographers that helped me and showed me how they did things. its only right to pass that knowledge along to others. happy shooting!
#11 by G13 Media on April 15th, 2010
That’s awesome, I wondered how they did this stuff. How much does the equipment cost?