DiabolicalMask^ I kind of liked it to be honest...
But thanks.
wrxrex: Thank you. The 206 shots are my favourites as well. 👍
440 CHARGER, here we go. A little DIY.
First, here's the original shot:
First, I do the Levels. I normally look at the spot that is more bright and therefore more likely to lose detail ("blow") when moving the right slider.
In this case my attention was at the rider's shoulder and helmet, and also the spot on the bike above the headlights.
With that in mind, I decided to leave it as showned in the picture:
After that, a bit of Contrast. +10 looked OK to me. I normally use values between 5 and 15:
Now, let's go to the Shadow/Highlight menu, and I normally start with the shadows to brighten the dark areas and balance the whole thing a bit (that's how I prefer them).
If there are reflections on the car/bike, this will also help to make them stand out. Especially when the car is in a shadow or at night shots.
+20 looked good and I normally don't use more than this but, as you'll see next, I should have used a bit more:
In the same menu is the Midtone Contrast. As I said, it's good for the backgrounds (but not only), although in this case it didn't make that much difference. I normally use more (+10 in this case):
(Note that I don't mess with any of the other parameters in this menu)
These ones don't need any explanation. Saturation (+15):
Unsharp Mask. I always use 0,4 radius and then normally around +100:
Now, after this the photo is pretty much ready and I save it like that.
Then, I resize it. 450*600 (600*450) as always.
After resizing, I usually give them a final touch in the Levels.
In this case I thought that overall the shot could be lighter, so I moved the middle slider a bit to the left to brighten it. Since the photo is much smaller now and there's less detail, I could have messed with the right one again as well to give it a final adjust, but not in this case.
After resizing a photo, it always seems to lose a bit of its sharpness, so I discovered that adding a bit more of USM after the resize is a good idea. +30 normally does the trick:
As I said above, when adjusting Shadows, I should've added a bit more. I noticed this right at the end and, because this is the way I like them, I added +5 (it also matched more the shot I previously posted a few days ago):
And voilà. The final result:
Phew. So there you go!
I really hope that helped and that you make good use of it...
The result is not far from the other one, I guess. This one looks even better, maybe.
I don't have specific techniques for specific situations. This is pretty much what I do to ALL my shots, although the values and amounts obviously vary, depending on how it looks at the moment.
👍
I agree with you on the second part, but I definitely don't agree with the first part...ALPHABrilliant! Your TT photos are so much more alive than mine. To me TT pictures have an edge over GT4, the rider just seems so much easier to relate to, than a shadowy silhouette driver
ALPHANice to see youre using borders now, though Im running out of things to say. Hows a generic, nice update man 👍 comment?
Do I need to say more...?ALPHAAs much as youre going to hate me, I might as well say it. To save you rubber stamping out the watermark, (which can be quite difficult at the best of times) just take another photo but move its centre down vertically so theres some overlap beyond the top of the copyright text. Load up the original image, align the second on top, feather a selection around where the originals watermark is, invert the selection and delete/mask the excess away. You do lose the default vignetting but it isnt that noticeable and is just as easy to fix. Instead of feathering you could just apply a basic gradient mask, which is slightly quicker.
The obvious downside is the extra overlap image that you have to create and time spent, though I only do it when I know itll be too hard to rubber stamp the watermark away. Thanks for the comments at my end!
Sexy, huh?sejturNice pants you wore at Motegi.
.*StReeTz*.I think the last Blitz Skyline is awesome!
PLmatt91Oh dang! I love the Motegi shots the most..
725I think they are quite good the skyline pics stand out the most
sejturThe 1st skyline pic is worth a drool.
TVR&Ferrari_FanI love the Skyline shots the most
Thanks, guys.FaLLeNAn9eLthe blitz skyline looks so real!
Exactly what I thought when I took it! 👍VonieI really like the first HKS, because when you first look at it, it looks like it is just driving, but then you see it's drifting, brilliant.
Definitely something's wrong with my PC monitor... That shot still looks too soft here.VonieThe RX thumb is pretty good, too, if a bit over-sharpened.
Thanks for that, eastley. I'll definitely try it. 👍eastleyWhen resizing the image instead of doing an unsharp mark afterwards just use the Bicubic Sharp selection when resizing.. Does the exact same job but slightly better!!
I,ve seen a bigger amount of replying to so many questions lol. Anyway looking forward to your next update.DiabolicalMaskThis is going to be big...
I agree with you on the second part, but I definitely don't agree with the first part...
Anyway, I'm not using borders. I only do that with pictures that I'm thinking about entering a PMC.
Do I need to say more...?
But thanks so much for the tip. Maybe someday I'll give it a go. 👍
Sexy, huh?
I think those come with a leopard thong as well...
Thanks, guys.
I knew most of you would like those Blitz shots.
They were all taken with EV -1.0, if you wanna know. It really helped to make those blue lights stand out.
Exactly what I thought when I took it! 👍
Definitely something's wrong with my PC monitor... That shot still looks too soft here.
Thanks for that, eastley. I'll definitely try it. 👍
Everyone else (the list is just too big), thanks so much for your comments.
DiabolicalMaskThanks for that, eastley. I'll definitely try it. 👍
Thanks, Vonie.VonieThe first three are great! Very DM.
And I really like that Stagea.
Yeah, I like looking at randoms as well. It's refreshing.lmracergood idea sticking some randoms in here. its fun to look at a large update thats not all the same car.