• RetroGiant Photography • September 2013 •

  • Thread starter RetroGiant
  • 665 comments
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Thank you guys so much for the great words! Hope everyone had a great holiday! I haven't gotten any time lately to take any new shots but I wanted to put up an update. I was browsing through the latest issue of black and white photography magazine and it was the 2010 "best of" awards. There were some great shots and I was surprised at how many out of focus and blurry shots were chosen. It made me kind of rethink the way I take pictures and instead focus more on the meaning instead of the subject. Now 90% of my shots are going to continue to be the way they used to be but I wanted to give the "blurry/out of focus" try on a shot and convey more of a meaning to the shot with its atmosphere than its focus on the actual subject. So here is my attempt. I even went with a standard car from my retro update. Let me know your thoughts on the shot and also your thoughts on the blurry out of focus style.

Update 12-27-10
"let go"
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I like the old-photo grunge feel on that last shot; and the light noise used on the 787B's
 
Nice. I'm a big fan of the aged look, I've experimented a bit with it but I've not gone ahead with anything that dramatic. The dust and scratches are nice. I wish you'd removed the GT watermark from the top right though. :P
 
I like the old-photo grunge feel on that last shot; and the light noise used on the 787B's
Thanks suz! I'm starting to integrate noise a bit more in my shots it seems. Just feels it gives it that extra touch for realism, if not over done.

Nice. I'm a big fan of the aged look, I've experimented a bit with it but I've not gone ahead with anything that dramatic. The dust and scratches are nice. I wish you'd removed the GT watermark from the top right though. :P
Thanks Rev. I'm a big fan of it as well. Edited out the GT watermark. GOt so caught up the other edits forgot that one lol.
 
Absolutely awesome, this is the kind of thing I've been wanting to do for ages but haven't had the time! You've really done a good job of capturing the car and making the photo look realistically aged.
 
This is fantastic! I like the idea a lot; we've been given something pretty awesome with the Panning 2 and 3 options, but it almost makes shots look too perfect, like some of Porsche's ad work. I mean, the super-polished shots have their place, but sometimes you want something more... personal, if that makes sense. This nails it, it's not just about something as simple as the subject (car), but about the overall shot itself. More of this 👍
 
Fantastic, I love vintage photography, it reminds me heavily of Polaroid shots. I also love the 1:1 ratio, my favorite photography is medium format deep down in my heart. Great composition and editing:tup:
 
Thank you guys so much for all the great words! After seeing Mog's polaroids I got inspired to go really dramatic for this next one. This will probably be the last super retro style update for a bit. I got some new shots I need to edit and put up. Most likely I'll get them up shortly after this one. Thanks once again for the great comments. I appreciate every one of them!

Update 12-30-10
Vintage Polaroid


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Stingray (Top Gear Style)
These were edited for this weeks 2.0 comp. Not super happy with them in the sense that they don't really ooze top gear but they came out alright. I thought the 3rd one came out the best so I went ahead and entered it into the comp. And then of course a vintage shot at the end. Enjoy.


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Thanks guys I appreciate it! Here is a bonus sti shot I had originally entered in the 2.0 reflection comp. Probably should have kept it in instead of the Lotus. Oh well :)

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Polaroid, Stingray and the STi looks amazing. Also, I am really loving the noise levels in your shots, enough just to get them grainy but not too much. 👍
 
Nice stingray shots. The first one is my fav and the STi shot I noticed in the comp earlier, very nice indeed, crazy looking reflections.
 
I love what you've done with the Polaroid shot, you've done what I really wish I could have been bothered to do! :lol: The Stingray looks brilliant too, so clean and smooth and the style you've shot it in suits the car and colour combination perfectly!
 
Thanks for the great comments guys. Looks like another week where I fall on my face for the comps. I need to start really being picky with my shots for the comps, I'm just not bringing it like I did in the past. Hopefully this week I can get something really good. Thanks again for all the comments, I really appreciate it!
 
Thanks for the great comments guys. Looks like another week where I fall on my face for the comps. I need to start really being picky with my shots for the comps, I'm just not bringing it like I did in the past. Hopefully this week I can get something really good. Thanks again for all the comments, I really appreciate it!

I don't think the issue is with your photos, more the voting. I've seen you constantly come up with fresh, new, exciting ideas for photos that are perfectly executed and yet they're losing votes to basic images that look clear or have had the contrast ramped up.

The problem isn't the photos because they are clearly stunning and well worthy of a win in any contest, the problem is that it's a new game and at the minute people are voting in the dumbest way possible. Look at the entries with the high votes in any poll and you'll notice that they are just clear shots of nice cars.

Very rarely are they unique or original, they're just a car plonked in the center of the image with the contrast ramped up in Photoshop. Entries which, back in the GT4 days, wouldn't get a look in. But because it's new and fancy, we're getting a lot of people voting for cars they like or shiny things that get them excited.

It'll calm down eventually, I'm sure, but for now I think we just have to sit back and watch the shiny cars get all the votes while the carefully composed, lit and colour balanced entries fall by the sidelines, only receiving votes from the more trained eye amongst us. Don't get me wrong, there are some new members who clearly have natural talent and are very very good at photography and editing, and they are voting in much the same way as the older members are (for the more exciting compositions with original ideas) but there aren't many!
 
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Damn. That Polaroid is just amazing. Could you do something like what with just levels and curves ?
 
I think you hit the nail on the head Mog! Thats basically what it all sums up to.

Gtuned: Thanks man. Color wise yes its definitely possible. Much more went into it though. But for the faded look is for sure possible.
 
:drool:

Can I call a prediction on this versus Mog's (er, Rev's ;)) Lambo in the final right now?!
 
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