Caterham up Winterhill (need advice) 2 pics & 1 link

[S1MON]

I took a photo today of my Caterham at the top of Winterhill which is badly exposed (rushed as blocking someone elses route - that's my excuse anyway ).

I have used auto levels in CS3 for the first picture and photomatix for the second. I have also included a link to the original photo just in case someone fancies showing me how it should be done

Link to original photo





Thanks

Simon

[RovingMike]

Well first time I've seen one with a socking great pole sticking out of the bonnet. Will try to take a peep at the levels etc, but top one looks reasonable. Bottom is a horror story.

[BigWill]

Yes, note to self Simon "always check the background"

BigWill

[S1MON]

I get great reception on my radio though!

I know the bottom one is pretty awfull but I would have liked a bit of the punchy colours in the car on the top shot.

[RovingMike]

So this is mine. Couldn't be bothered to take the pole out and that wasn't your issue in the first place. Any better / different?

[Fen]

Here you go...



Steps...

1. Removed the background
2. Duplicated layer
3. Set to 'pin light'
4. Duplicate original layer again
5. Cut out sky
6. Adjust levels
7. Add a 'black to transparent' grad to give sky more umph.

I can send a 600px high PSD to you if you want

[RovingMike]

What's with the magenta sky??

[Fen]

What's with the magenta sky??

That'd be the strange atmospheric effects of the radio masts at Winterhill

[Rustyknight]

If you go a few steps further using Qtpfsgui, you could get something like this....

[S1MON]

I think of all the adjusted photos it's Mike's that I most prefer. Probably because he has kept the aerial in for one and also because it looks the most natural (I feel bad saying that after how I treated mine with Photomatix).

Rusty that is interesting what you have done with your version. I could grow to like that style!

Thanks for the offer of the copy Fen, yes please send it to me.

Thanks again

Simon

[ermintrude]

Here you go...

I cant quite tell if youre being serious or not... o_O

[RovingMike]

I think of all the adjusted photos it's Mike's that I most prefer. Probably because he has kept the aerial in for one and also because it looks the most natural

Simon, in fact the auto levels did a better job than manual. Then I pulled the curves and saturation up a bit and did a high pass to just sharpen it a bit. Metal things often look good with some sharpening.

[Zou]

If you want the punchy car colours of the HDR one why not paste the hdr image into a new layer of the original and mask the non-car bits? That way you could lose the halo as well.

[Fen]

I cant quite tell if youre being serious or not... o_O

It's the grad that effects for colours... gotta leave them some work to do

[ermintrude]

I cant quite tell if youre being serious or not... o_O

It's the grad that effects for colours... gotta leave them some work to do

Ah it was the squidgy-kids-finger-prints-covered-in-jam bit I was confised about Quite liked the colour etc.

[JonMcGovern]

My attempt. Just a levels adjustment, dodging/burning and selective saturation. I lost a bit of detail in the sky but it doesn't really make a lot of difference.

[Clodhopper]

I think it's time to put the lid up...



Sorry, couldn't resist

Very nice car, btw

[chr1s]

and while we're at it, why not just paste in a new sky

[chr1s]

heh! clodhopper beat me to it!

[S1MON]

and while we're at it, why not just paste in a new sky

Chris, I really like what you have done with this... very punchy!

Simon

PS also liked Clodhopper's and Jon's (but not quite as much!)