GT6 Photomode Photographers Q&A #17 - ARC74

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After the great success of the GT5 Q&A thread, it's only right to start a new thread aimed at GT6.

Having noticed some of the awesome photos/edits people create using GT6, i thought it would be a good idea to have a quick Q&A with many of the photographers who continue to create amazing works of art.

How it will work is that every nominated photographer answers the same set of questions all based on photography and photomode. They then nominate the next photographer to answer them and so on.

I think it will work best by PM the same way the competition winners pick their next theme, that way i will know quickly if the nominated photographer is interested in answering the questions or not and i can move on to the next person.

It should be an interesting read and will hopefully be a good place to pick up hints, tips and inspiration for your own galleries.

Now seeing that this is the first Q&A i will randomly pick a photographer to go first. This won't be a case of favouritism or anything like that, we have to start somewhere!

You could also use the Q&A to ask the current photographer selected your own questions.

Click the members names below to read their Q&A...


 
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#1 - @RetroGiant

1, How about an introduction?
My real name is Corey, I just turned 30, and I’m a graphic designer in there real world. I have a wife, no kids yet, and a fat little pug named Layla. I enjoy video games, sports, photography, movies, music, the usuals I suppose. Ok, its starting to seem like I’m putting up a personal ad lol. Next question.

2, What keeps you coming back to the GTP Photomode Forums?
It’s honestly seeing the amazing work everyone is able to create. Back in GT4 the big guns were those who could edit really well to make their pics stand out. Today, editing has definitely taken a back seat to overall photo taking ability and I’m really glad to see that. Plus out of all the forums I visit on the internet, the photo mode forums are some of the absolute nicest people around. I also love that I am able to connect and talk with people all over the world.

3, What where you looking forward to the most before GT6 was released?
Probably what everyone else was, new cars, tracks, etc. I was hoping for a revamped career mode, some better photo mode locations and options. Maybe in time some will get added though.

4, Of all the new cars in GT6, which one is your favourite and why?
Really hard to say. I’ve yet to dive into driving a ton lol, been taking too many pictures. The 2014 Corvette was pretty fun to drive though.

5, Which of the new locations is your favourite and why?
Matterhorn, Willow Springs, Goodwood (albeit a bit restrictive for photomode), really all the new tracks. The lighting and modeling is just fantastic on them.

6, Is there any feature, that isn't in the game, that you would have liked to see?
Several. Paint chips are kinda fun but I want complete freedom in how I paint. Multiple focus points. Different lenses. Non rolling starts. Livery editor. Pretty much on par with everything most people really want. Too many to fully list.

7, What car, which isn't in the game, would you like to have included in GT6?
Vector W8 or Vector W2. Classic iconic 80s style. I love it. That and the 57 Chevy Bel Air.

8, Could you share a location that you'd love to see added to GT6?
Not one in particular but I’d love to see more grungy warehouse style like I think it was the fish market in GT4. Studio with smoke and lighting. They don’t have to monstrous. I think PD does an amazing job with their photo mode locations but some are just so large its overkill. I’d rather have several small locations than just a couple huge ones.

9, Could you talk us through one of your GT6 pictures from start to finish?
Race around the track trying not to crash into anything, watch replay, look at lighting and location, click photo, size up a photo, take photo, hate photo, move camera, take photo, hate photo……rinse and repeat and after 5-10 minutes I find a photo thats “good enough” lol. I’m still getting comfortable with taking photos. It takes me way too long just to snap and keep one.

10, How about giving us a mini tutorial on any aspect of photographing in GT6?
I struggle so much with this, lately I’ve been using my editing as a heel. If you want to take one of the realistic type of shots in GT6, use a cloudy track or wait till your car gets into the shadows of a track. PD’s shadow lighting is on a level of its own.

11, Can you give us a mini tutorial on any aspect of editing?
This one I could go on for days about. Here is a quick little random tutorial. Take a normal shot and duplicate it. Desaturate the duplicated layer and set it do overlay/soft light. Fade as you see fit. Quick and easy effect to get some boldness out of your photo.

12, What part of photography/editing do you need to improve on and why?
I need to learn the proper focal lengths and apertures 100%. That combined with varying angles. I’ve been struggle big time with getting correct focus and crispness. Editing wise, I try and learn and keep improving every time I edit a photo. I need to learn remember that sometimes less is more when it comes to editing.

13, Do you ever see a picture and think "How did they do that?". Which GTPlanet photomode members picture would you like to know more about?
ALL THE TIME. There are so many people that blow my mind today its crazy. gtuned, jBhIpS, shaolinmasta, nbz, etc, etc, etc. Too many. If I had to pick one from GT6….I’d go with this one by shaolin...

11438840465_580422ed91_c.jpg
The lighting, the bokeh, the tones, what was the ev? aperture? The shot is toooooo real. HOW!?!?!?!?! Honestly though I could throw in about 50 other shots where I just look puzzled and can’t figure out for the life of me how they got that initial shot from the game and then the editing technique.

14, Do you have any words of wisdom or anything else you can share to inspire the rest of us?
Lately I’ve been following some real life automotive photographers on flickr. It opens my mind up about different angles and compositions. There is some amazing stuff out there which oozes inspiration in the automotive photography world. Also, use music. It can set the tone for an entire photo session or editing session.

15, Finally, Who would you like to nominate for the next Q&A session and why?
Revolution. He needs to spill the beans about that LFA shot. What was the sorcery behind it? Was it a texture? Noise levels? Wizardry?

Thanks Corey 👍
 
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Nice read Corey, nice to know more about you. A graphic designer too I see. :D 👍

Good choice for the next up, I've looking forward to Rev's answers since the GT5 Q&A.
 
This Q&A business is a really cool idea! I spent a bit of time last night reading through most of the GT5 ones - some really great insight in them. Good answers RG - I'll see what I can do regarding the sorcery behind the LFA :P... I'll have to see if I can dig up the original shot for you all.
 
#2 - @revolution
1, How about an introduction?

Okay! My name is Robert, I’m 24 years old and have *just* (last month!) completed a Masters degree in Industrial Design. I’ve been into cars as long as I can remember, and have been a bit of a amateur hobby photographer since I first picked up a camera. I’ve been playing the Gran Turismo series since GT2, although back then I was too young to appreciate much more than the massive car list. I skipped GT3 but really got into GT4, and eventually found my way to the GTP forums, by way of the photomode competitions that were happening at the time.

2, What keeps you coming back to the GTP Photomode Forums?
The innovative community. The competitions. The friendly folk that frequent this part of the site! I first found GTPlanet via its Photomode Forums back in early GT4 days, and back then it was all about using Photoshop to clean up the game output (standard cars ahoy!) and also to simulate the sorts of photographs that the game wouldn’t let us take. Thinking back on it, I’m convinced that somebody from Polyphony Digital was watching back then, because after hundreds (probably thousands) of GT4 photos by the community here run through photoshop, radial and zoom blurs added to replicate tracking or rig shots, GT5 comes out with camera tracking built right in - panning modes 2 & 3! The thought that a bunch of us photo takers who decided to start adding a bit more motion to our GT photos has actually influenced the development of a Gran Turismo title, and resulted in new features being added to future games is really exciting.

GT5 photomode was a huge leap from GT4, not just in the panning modes but in the level of detail being presented, as well as the quality of the images output. The base images we were working on were vastly better quality than those from GT4, and it freed us up from focusing on cleanup and blurs, to be able to spend more time tweaking the colours, levels, composition, etc, and producing work where the focus was on the photographic merit of the image, and less on the photoshop wizardry. And now we have GT6, and I’m back on the photomode forums again, eagerly awaiting to see what the next frontier of GT photography will bring…


3, What where you looking forward to the most before GT6 was released?
Hmmmm, probably the new physics model! Whilst I do love photomode, GT is a driving game, and I do love racing around some of my favourite circuits in some brilliant cars. One feature that also piqued my interest was word of a GPS-tracking smartphone app that could capture real life driving routes and import them into the game as a created course… still waiting on that one though.

4, Of all the new cars in GT6, which one is your favourite and why?
Ah, well firstly, the Red Bull Junior cars are brilliant fun… and that noise! But I’d have to say the Honda HSV-010 SuperGT car - I know, technically it was released as DLC for GT5, but I never bought that pack, so it’s new to me! It’s so planted on the road and handles brilliantly, and again, that noise!

5, Which of the new locations is your favourite and why?
Ooh, maybe Matterhorn? And not just because it’s so beautiful there with that alpine backdrop, I really enjoy the track layout too… Rotenboden is my favourite I think. Bathurst is also great fun - I’ve driven it in many other video games, but this is the best rendition I’ve come across and it’s a really enjoyable track. Nailing the racing line over the top of the mountain is so rewarding.

6, Is there any feature, that isn't in the game, that you would have liked to see?
I would adore a livery editor. There was a really fun but unfortunately under appreciated karting game called Modnation Racers that came out for the PS3 a few years ago that had an awesome track creator and kart creator (with liveries). I spent so much time in that creating pint sized versions of classic racing cars… I want that for Gran Turismo! I also can’t wait for that GPS-tracking course creator… I’ve got a bunch of roads in the hills near me that are just WAITING to be loaded into Gran Turismo!

7, What car, which isn't in the game, would you like to have included in GT6?
Is it too obvious if I say PORSCHE? It’s the last missing piece. C’mon PD. :P I’d also really like to see more Formula 1 representation… I was disappointed to see the Ferrari F1 cars disappear from GT6.

8, Could you share a location that you'd love to see added to GT6?
It’d be remiss of me not to suggest my hometown, Adelaide. The Adelaide Formula 1 circuit would be brilliant to see. I’d settle for the V8 Supercar layout. Great track. Aside from that, I’d like to see the Singapore GP circuit, as well as Interlagos. Oh, and bring back Seattle and Midfield raceway!

9, Could you talk us through one of your GT6 pictures from start to finish?
My GT picture sessions are pretty simple - often I’ll plan out what I want to photograph in advance (for example, I’m really keen on showing off my HSV-010… soon!), and I’ll decide on a location to shoot it at, and also the sorts of photos I want to take. I might take inspiration on how I shoot it from a number of areas - other photomode galleries on GTP are an excellent source of ideas. Alternatively, pick up a car magazine and check out some real life car photos by proper photographers - find an idea you like, and see if you can do something like it in GT. I’ll go and do a free roam with my selected car on my selected track and just have fun driving for a few laps. Try not to crash. :P Then the actual photography part! I tend to take maybe 20-30 shots from a shoot, from which I’ll prune down to maybe 3-5 or so for a single gallery update. Or even a single one, for a competition entry! I know some here tend to shoot a lot more than that, but I guess I just tend to only save the ones I really like. I’ll probably take a fair few photos and then discard them without saving if I don’t care for them much. Keep in mind your inspiration and the sort of style you’re going for throughout the shoot. Anywho, after I’m done taking photos I’ll start editing. I’ll generally browse through them all on my computer (sometimes something will look great on a 50” TV but not be that great at smaller computer screen sizes) and select my absolute favourite. This one will be the guinea pig on which I start my editing - I’ll just play with different styles and colourings and effects until I think the colour toning complements the image nicely. I might add some noise or a vignette, and if the image calls for it I might look at optical flares, or light glows or something else to add a bit of interest here and there. Anywho, once I’m happy with it I’ll then select my few other top images from the shoot and apply the same colouring and effects and such to the shots, of course tweaking them as I go to suit the individual images. And voila!

10, How about giving us a mini tutorial on any aspect of photographing in GT6?
I don’t think there’s anything particularly revolutionary (:P) about my method of photography in game. But here are some things to keep in mind. I’ve been known in the past to take some pretty realistic looking photos, and whilst the post processing of them certainly helps, a big big part of how realistic a photo looks is entirely on how it is shot inside Gran Turismo. Think about the angle of your camera, the positioning, the settings. Panning mode 3 is great, and produces some really cool shots, but in real life achieving that sort of photo involves having a chase car in which the photographer shoots from (which will limit the sorts of angles you can achieve), or having a physical rig attached to the hero car, which has a whole bunch of limitations as well. If you’re going for realism, think about your camera angles - would that angle you’re thinking about even be achievable in real life? One of my most popular shots, of a Lexus LFA at the Nurburgring, was taken with panning mode 1, with a focal length of ~360mm or so. The aperture was F4.0. The idea behind the angle was that it’d be the sort of shot one of those spy-photographers who camp out at the Nurburgring might take of the many disguised prototypes that test there.

Here’s another quick tip for the photo-taking side of things - pay attention to reflections. Look closely at the way the light catches your car, and the sorts of things that are reflected in it as you move around it. Capture some lovely reflections and they’ll go a long way towards making your picture eye catching and detailed!


11, Can you give us a mini tutorial on any aspect of editing?
Aha, editing! The secret sauce. Editing is an integral part of my workflow - just as it is for any professional photographer! The tools we have in Photoshop are not that different to the darkroom retouching done back in the days of film photography - it’s just easier now. Back in GT4 days, as mentioned, photoshop was used primarily to clean up the game output, which at the time left a bit to be desired. These days we have really nice clean (and high resolution, in 2X mode) output, which means that editing can be used solely for artistic purposes. When editing, I want to give my photos a feel, a mood, for the look of them to convey an emotion. The editing style should complement the car, the location, and the style of photo you’ve taken! A Lamborghini on an alpine pass should have a totally different look and feel to a JDM Skyline on Suzuka. Since the game output is so very clean, I aim to give my photos a bit more character. Adding noise will give a bit more life to a photo, make it a little grittier. Adding a dark vignette will focus the eye on the centre of the image, creating a stronger focal point. Play with colour filters to accentuate different hues within the image. Colour theory is important too - remember complementary colours - they work well together!

Now, a mini tutorial… here’s something I’ve been playing with lately to accentuate highlights and reflections on a car. This is best used after most of your initial editing is done. In Photoshop, go to Select > Colour Range. Use the eye dropper to select the lightest part of the image, the closest tones to white. Set Fuzziness to 200 - the preview window should look like a contrasty black and white version of your image. Click OK. This will select the light tones in your image. Copy and paste to a new layer. Now you have the light tones of your image on a layer by themselves. Go to Image > Adjustments > Brightness/Contrast. Crank the brightness. It might make your image look overexposed at the moment, but stick with it… Now, go to Filters > Blur > Gaussian Blur. This’ll make your highlights glow. I find a radius of 5.0 works well for a 2X sized image. Now feel free to adjust the opacity of your highlights layer to tweak the intensity of the effect. Remember you can always use the eraser brush to selectively remove the effect from specific parts of the images if necessary, for example if it has overexposed the entire sky, or something like that. Here’s a gif showing before/after of this simple technique.

highlights-layer-gif.98571


12, What part of photography/editing do you need to improve on and why?
I would like to be a bit more creative and innovative with my photo taking - I can sometimes find myself taking very similar photos quite often. Trying new angles and finding cool new spots to take pictures is something I feel I ought to do more of, and to push myself out of my comfort zone a bit more!

13, Do you ever see a picture and think "How did they do that?". Which GTPlanet photomode members picture would you like to know more about?
I’m frequently impressed by the works of others photographers in the GTP community. When I first started in GT4 it was photos from the likes of Franz, 440 Charger and the photoshop wizardry of Vicious VP that inspired me most. In GT5 I was frequently wowed by Moglet, SlipZtrEm, ceiling_fan… now in GT6 I’ve been really impressed by works by GPR, NBDESIGNZ, The RICE Guy, and jBhIpS. And it’s only early days! I’d like to get around to more of the galleries and find more great work in the future… Also, aside from photos, I’m totally blown away by the video works of jBhIpS.

14, Do you have any words of wisdom or anything else you can share to inspire the rest of us?
RG specifically requested info on the Lexus LFA shot! It was a fair while ago, so I can’t remember details, but I can give a bit of an overview of what into it. Here’s the original shot:

n%C3%BCrburgring-nordschleife_155-jpg.98576


First of all, as I mentioned earlier, the shot was envisioned as the sort of photo a ‘Ring spy photographer might take. To that end, when editing the colouring of it, I jumped onto google images and found a whole range of Nurburgring spy photos, found one I liked the look of, and aped the colouring. To that end, the image has a very warm colour cast with a heavy cyan/mid blue colour filter on it. Reds and greens toned down. The shadows are very desaturated, the mid tones less so, and the highlights about normal. Very very subtle vignette. That’s the colouring and toning.

Everything in this world reflects light, to some degree. Even if only a little. Even tarmac! Car headlights reflect off of the road surface - even in the dry, at the right angle, headlights will create a sheen on the road. Example here. I used the dodge brush to replicate this a bit on the road below the headlights, and also to create a bit of an optical flare shining out from the headlights. Lastly, a generous helping of noise for the grainy, gritty look to match the colour tones.

Simple, right? :P

lexus-lfa-nurburgring-jpg.98577


15, Finally, Who would you like to nominate for the next Q&A session and why?

I’d like to hear from The R!CE Guy, whose GT6 stuff has been really impressing me lately! His shots have this stylised, contrasty, dynamic look and feel to them that is unlike any GT stuff I’ve seen before.

Thanks Robert 👍
 
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Great stuff Robert. ;)

I like everything in this interview but this part was the one that catches my attention the most:

Here’s another quick tip for the photo-taking side of things - pay attention to reflections. Look closely at the way the light catches your car, and the sorts of things that are reflected in it as you move around it. Capture some lovely reflections and they’ll go a long way towards making your picture eye catching and detailed!

This is one of the things I've been trying to improve and one of those details that a lot of people (myself included) ignore or miss.

Looking forward to Nux interview.


And again, thank you Lee for keeping this thread alive. 👍
 
Thank you Leeislee, for running the Q&A and giving me the opportunity to share a bit of my approach and photomode philosophy, if you will! :lol:

@zzz_pt - I'm glad you found it interesting! Reflections are definitely very important - they can be what sets a 'great' shot apart from a just 'good' shot.
 
Great interview Robert! Very in depth with all your questions and answers. Really great tips as well! Thanks for discussing your editing and the LFA shot. Will definitely use those tips in the future!
 
A very insightful interview Rev! Lots of tips and tricks. Loving this thread Lee! Keep it up.
Also, looking forward to Nux's interview as well. Some photoshop madness from him these days, it could be very interesting to hear from him.

EDIT: I just wanted to add that the LFA shot already looked good and realistic straight from GT5. It just shows you that lighting and composition is key when you want to get a realistic shot, and of course editing helps.
 
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Cheers guys - glad you found the tips useful! Anyone is welcome to PM me if they have any other questions about GT photography and such :)
 


1, How about an introduction?
Hey guys, many of you may already know me by now, however for those that don't - my name is Sarathonux, but I usually go by the nickname Nux! I'm a 19 year old, Cambodian graphic design student, living in Hamilton, New Zealand. I'm currently taking a gap year from my course so I can earn some $$$, and make art that I want to make without having the limitations of a brief.

I love drawing, design, photography, anime and gaming. I was introduced to the original Gran Turismo at the age of 4 and that's what sparked my interest in cars and gaming in general. I've been a fan of the GT franchise ever since and owned all the main copies. Gran Turismo 2 is by far my favourite of them all, it had so many awesome cars which sadly didn't make it into any of the newer games.



I've been taking GT pics ever since the day GT5 came out, however I didn't discover GTPlanet until an entire year later; that's when I started up my first gallery. Just like many others, my first lot of artworks were pretty mediocre, however over time I started to get much better at editing and taking pictures. I edit all my images with Photoshop CS6 & Lightroom 4.2 and I've picked up a lot of different techniques/methods just by experimenting, analysing other artists work and reading about their processes.

My recent style of artworks are considered to be very dramatic, featuring intense amounts of contrast and lighting effects. Light manipulation is what I currently like to do and it is the inspiration for my logo design. I created the logo in the form of a diamond because a diamond reflects and refracts light (internal reflection). It essentially captures the beauty of light with in a frame and that's what I have been trying to achieve in my recent artworks. Hopefully you can see the relation between the the two.




2, What keeps you coming back to the GTP Photomode Forums?
It has to be the vast amount of creativity and diversity in art style. This place is like a massive pool of inspiration for automotive art. The community is also made up of the nicest group of people on the internet. Over here, everyone gives praise and constructive criticism, where as in other forums, everyone tends to rip each other to shreds over a difference in opinion.

3, What where you looking forward to the most before GT6 was released?
I was looking forward to all the new and updated cars that I would get to take pictures of, as well as the new Phototravel locations. However I was a little disappointed finding out there were only 4 places to shoot and there are a number of spots with poor texture quality. Bring back the GT5 locations PD, and while your at it, give us the locations that were shown in the GT5 menu videos.



4, Of all the new cars in GT6, which one is your favourite and why?
My favourite new car would have to be the SRT Viper. Although it is slightly more elegant than it's predecessors, the car still has that aggressive viper characteristic that I love! It's definitely a car you need to treat with respect or else you'll more than likely end up crashing into a barrier.


5, Which of the new locations is your favourite and why?
The City of Arts & Science has to be my favourite place to shoot static shots. I love the modern/futuristic styled architecture and most of the textures PD has used at this location are pretty good when compared to other locations like Ronda. I do think there are some areas that need a texture update though.

For motion shots, it would have to be Goodwood Hillclimb. The trees offer some really great looking reflections.



6, Is there any feature, that isn't in the game, that you would have liked to see?
Like Robert & Corey have mentioned in their Q&A's, a livery editor would be great. Growing up I spent a lot of time playing games like Need for Speed, Juiced and Midnight Club. I would spend more time creating how I wanted my car to look rather than actually playing the game itself. Can't forget all the hero cars I've made such as Eleanor from Gone in 60 Sec and Brian's Nissan GTR (Fast & Furious).

However on the other hand, what I would've also liked to see is the option to open doors, hoods and let us take interior shots without having to glitch the game. Forza has done it, now it's time for GT to take the same step.

Oh wait! There's a couple more things that I would like to see! I want a full 24h cycle option for Phototravel locations with weather effects and the option to lower the shutter speed even more when shooting motion shots. It makes no sense how this is only available in Phototravel when nothing even moves!


7, What car, which isn't in the game, would you like to have included in GT6?
I would love to see the Pagani Zonda Cinque or the 760RS in GT6! I think the newer iterations of Zonda look so much better than the Huayra. Although the Huayra is a great looking car, the front end looks too bloated to me.


8, Could you share a location that you'd love to see added to GT6?
An abandon warehouse or a hanger would be great, as well as a clean looking studio set up like the ones seen in Forza.


Images by leopauldelr and revo27


9, Could you talk us through one of your GT6 pictures from start to finish?
The first thing I do is start panning the camera around looking for the most photogenic or interesting angles of the car, paying special attention to the way light reflects off the paintwork and what is in the surroundings of the shot. I take about 15-30 shots and later narrow it down to about 5-8 to share.

I then import the images into Lightroom and start playing around with the blacks & whites, shadows & highlights as well as the temperature & tones of the image. I crank up the clarity to bring out the details, add a touch of sharpening to bring out the lines & edges in the image and add a bit of luminance to reduce the visible banding. I save the settings as a preset and apply it to all the other images in the set. Since each image is different, I need to tweak the settings to get the desired effect.

Once that is done, I export the images into Photoshop and that's where the magic starts to happen. Depending on the image I may have a particular vision for it, but most times I just go with the flow and see where the editing process takes me... until, I start to get a clearer idea of what I want to do with the image.

For this particular shot, I already had a vision of how I wanted it to look. I wasn't happy with how the tiles looked in the shot so I replaced the ground texture with a cracked ground stock image from the internet. I extended the shadow, added a couple layers of gradient maps (soft light layer blend mode) to the image to make the tones of the ground texture and the car blend together. I smoothed out the colour banding on the body panels of the car. Applied a smoky texture over top (screen layer blend mode). Threw another gradient map over top to intensify the brightness and contrast to give it a more dramatic look.


10, How about giving us a mini tutorial on any aspect of photographing in GT6?
I really have no clue on how to give a mini tutorial on photography, however I can give you some advice. Before shooting an image, look at how light reflects off the paint surface of the car. You're gonna want an image that has a varying degree of tones to prevent the car from looking flat. Reflections and what you have in the background can make or break an image. So be wary of this too.


11, Can you give us a mini tutorial on any aspect of editing?
Ah well of course I can... here's my little secret on how I clean up colour banding in my images. The method I use requires the use of the mixer brush which is available in Photoshop CS5 and up. I tend to get much cleaner results than if I were to use filters like surface blur, lens blur etc.

Go to your tools panel and right click on the brush icon then select it. I then create a new layer on top of all the existing layers, and have my soft, round brush set to: Hardness 0% | Wet 65% | Load 12% | Mix 100% | Flow 100% | Tick the box with "sample all layers."

I then alt click on the area I wish to paint (this loads all the colours in the selected area into a mixing palette), and brush over the colour banding like a regular brush. It keeps the tones you selected and smooths it out really well. Just remember to paint in the direction of the gradient with short strokes. The closer you zoom in, the more control you will have.

Notes:

  • Although it is not entirely necessary, I "alt click" each time before I perform a stroke to make sure I've got a fresh batch of tones to work with
  • "Ctrl/command z" if you make a mistake
  • Use the " [ " " ] " keys to increase or decrease the size of the brush
  • Holding "alt" while using the "scroll wheel" on your mouse, zooms in and out
It's good to toggle the layer on or off (by clicking on the eye icon next to your layer) to see what the image originally looks like. If it doesn't look right, just erase certain parts of the layer and brush over it again. Once you've spent a fair bit of time with it, you'll begin to understand how the mechanics of the tool works.


Once that is done, I select all the layers, duplicate them and merge them together (right click and select merge layers). I add a tiny amount of noise to the merged image to hide any remnants of banding I may have missed. For x1 images I use 0.6 noise and for x2 images I use 1.4 noise.

Hope this helps!



Final Product

12, What part of photography/editing do you need to improve on and why?
I absolutely struggle to capture night racing shots. Trying to find the right location is hard, because I need the car to be under some source of light to make sure the details of the car are visible but a lot of the time I end up with a pretty boring background. Sometimes the images end up being too dark to even use.

13, Do you ever see a picture and think "How did they do that?". Which GTPlanet photomode members picture would you like to know more about?
Hell yes! All the damn time! I always get blown away by the amazing artworks created by ShaolinMasta, Taiga, GPR, jBhIpS, leeislee, NBDESIGNZ, Kodje, Haer_Bev, max351, zzz_pt, TVR&FF, gtuned, RetroGiant plus many more!

Just look at this image below. It was created by Ricardo (zzz_pt) using over 80 x2 sized images! How the 🤬 did he manage to capture this?! This is just absolutely mind blowing since the camera movement is extremely limited when doing the interior glitch!



Image by zzz_pt

14, Do you have any words of wisdom or anything else you can share to inspire the rest of us?
Don't be afraid to ask other artists for some tips and techniques. Chances are, they are more than likely to share some of their secrets with you. I've had at least 8 people ask me to help them out / create tutorials for them since I started up my GT6 Gallery, which is great but also surprising since I don't see my work as being as good as many other GTP Photographers. I currently have 2 tutorials up in my gallery and 2 in the drafting stage and I'm going to be making more over the lifespan of GT6.


Click the image above to see one of my tutorials

15, Finally, Who would you like to nominate for the next Q&A session and why?
I would love to hear from max351, his edits are amazing! No more domination tells us of the legendary story of the Hudson Hornet, and the tribute to Akira Nakai (the founder of RWB) looks absolutely stunning. Hands down the best RWB edit I've seen on GTPlanet!


Images by max351

Thanks Nux 👍
 
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Wow! Great interview Nux. A lot of useful info and a lot of attention to detail. Nice to see some shots between the text too. :)

I never saw that "warehouse" in GT5 :eek: I want that location! Now!

And thank you for sharing my interior shot. :) It's nice to see the work recognized :D
 
Missed this thread! Always good reads back in GT5. Always dreamed to be nominated for one of this interveiws :P

Seems there will be more good reads in the gt6 thread!
 
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