Lesson 3: Motion and Color Effects
I am finally getting around to the tutorial requests. Enjoy!
Using motion and color effects are two of the best ways to enhance your statement within a photograph. These tricks will add depth and reality as well as make your photographs more interesting to the viewer.
Here is a basic shot with absolutely no in-game or post processing effects.
Shutter: 0, Aperture: 0, Exposure/ Contrast/ Color/ Brightness: 50, Sepia: 0
Click for larger image
Although it is a decent shot as it is, there is a lot for our eyes to handle and nothing in particular stands out. First step in creating some drama in the photo is to add some motion. To achieve this, I adjusted the shutter slider. As you will notice, zero is stop motion and 100 is blurry. In this second photo, I have only adjusted the shutter slider.
Shutter: 47, Aperture: 0, Exposure/ Contrast/ Color/ Brightness: 50, Sepia: 0
Click for larger image
What you will notice is only the foreground becomes blurry from the camera movement. This is normal in photography. The closer the object is relative to the camera, the more it will be blurred from its movement. Because those mountains are so far off in the distance, they move very little in relation to the camera. This has its up sides and down sides. If you like the look of the foreground blurred and want the mountain in focus too, you're done. But if you find the mountains a little to distracting or only want the car in focus, you must also adjust the aperture slider when adjusting the shutter as seen in this next photo.
Shutter: 47, Aperture: 61, Exposure/ Contrast/ Color/ Brightness: 50, Sepia: 0
Click for larger image
As you see, decreasing the depth of field separated the car from the background a bit which put more emphasis on the car and helped with that motion effect. Now, let's take this one step further by enhancing the colors from the sunrise/ sunset.
Easiest way to do is is to just adjust the color slider closer towards 100. Zero being no color (black and white image) and 100 being fully saturated colors. When adjusting to increase color saturation, this tends to add a bit of contrast and darkens the blacks a bit. So, I adjusted the other sliders accordingly to help bring out the warm colors from the sun.
Shutter: 47, Aperture: 61, Exposure: 40, Contrast:51, Color: 66 Brightness: 60, Sepia: 3
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Compare this image to the first one. The whites have turned a bit red. This color change reinforces the rest of the colors in the sky. It truly looks like it was taken early in the morning. In my opinion, that is a finished image ready to share with the world. With a little adjustment of a couple of sliders, I went from a mundane photo to one I am proud to show off.
In this last image I added some sepia and readjusted the color slider. Adding sepia is a great way to manipulate the colors in the image. Normally when I shoot I tend to add a very small amount of sepia as you may have noticed in my final image, especially when shooting a sunrise or sunset. The added red from the sepia lends well to the changes in color from the sun.
But this tool works great if you are looking to add a little variety to any photograph. Here is the final image with some added sepia.
Shutter: 47, Aperture: 61, Exposure: 40, Contrast:51, Color: 66 Brightness: 60, Sepia: 47
Click for larger image
In this image, adding sepia muted the colors in the sky but added that warm feeling to the rest of the image. This also makes for exceptional shots at this time of the day.
But the sepia filter can be used in other ways too. Try adjusting the color to zero and moving the slider around. This will give you a more antique photo look which can lend it self well when shooting the older race cars. Or try shooting with both color and sepia at zero. Just using a black and white image will help your image stand out next to images that are over-saturated and full of color.
For example, this car lends well to a black and white image. Unfortunately, this is an older photograph so I do not remember the settings used and this was also edited outside of FM4.
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Here is another shot I used in a competition where I adjusted the color and sepia sliders to manipulate the color. This was shot in the afternoon but sort of looks like it was shot early in the morning.
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Honestly, usage of motion and color effects is completely subjective. There is no right way or wrong way to use them. When used properly, they will greatly enhance your image. But if you over use them, they can easily detract from your image or message. I will adjust and readjust each slider multiple times until I am completely satisfied. There is no science behind the madness. Plus, getting too critical ruins the fun of photography for me. With some experimentation, you may come across something no one else has tried thus far.